Conquerors they Rise
by JoeTheHighlord
Summary: A Halo Mass effect crossover first contact war putting a heavy emphasis on space naval combat and interesting land battles. And yes there will be very heavy council bashing. rated T for now though the rating may change. I may change the plot if there is high enough demand but for now it will end before the events of ME 3.
1. Prelude The Artifact in the Ice

**Prologue: The Artifact in the Ice **

"_Conquered we rise, conquers they fall"- unknown UNSC ship captain upon witnessing the destruction of High Charity _

**May 21 2650, 4****th**** R&D Fleet en route to Shanxi system space.**

Captain Marcus McHenery of the 4th research and development fleet was not having a good day. Hell he wasn't having a good week. 6 days ago he and his entire fleet were called to investigate some sort of anomaly in one of the ice moons on the far reaches of the Shanxi system. Hell if he knew what was going on the brass was very tight lipped about it all saying only, "It's a matter of UNSC security". Sure… matter of paramount security, why did they send such a relatively small fleet then? He could only assume it was one of those Forerunner installations that the geniuses in the science boats salivated over. Granted he wasn't about to complain if they were going to find an untouched installation, lord knew the breakthroughs brought about by those enigmatic Forerunners catapulted the UNSC forward centuries. And if what some of the uppities said was true then they had only scratched the tip of the iceberg.

Hell his own fleet consisting of 2 Halcyon light Cruisers, 6 Charon class Frigates and his own flagship the newly designated Dreadnaught Capital Ship greatly benefited from the discoveries. Each ship along with the standard armament of Archer Missile pods, MAC mains guns, and such other standard UNSC equipment were slowly being replaced by the Forerunner tech. For example the new point defense system. Originally utilizing Spartan laser technology the old point defense system was replaced by the hard light laser system. The hard light system had twice the power and a fraction of the cost in energy of the Spartan lasers. Of course the MK3 plasma launcher system wasn't that new of a breakthrough, being utilized since a few years after the end of the Human-Covenant war, they were still damn impressive. Able to pass through and annihilate everything but the thickest and strongest armor the MK3 plasma launcher systems were frightening to behold. The only armor known to withstand multiple direct hits from the system were again, of Forerunner design the new alloys were in a word, amazing. Half the weight of the thick titanium armor of the old UNSC ships and nearly three times as strong it was being mass produced as quickly as possible and fleets new and old were all being refitted with the armor. But the thing that put the real icing on the cake was the DEMs. These babies were almost as strong as the super MACs on capital ships like the UNSC Infinity class, and unlike the MACs they didn't take up a massive portion of the ship. The only downside to the DEMs was the massive energy cost and recharging time. It took up to 2 full minutes to recharge to full power, 4x that of the new standard MACs and 2x that of super MACs. Still research was under way to minimize this cost and the ability to punch through or overload energy shields was a massive boon for any ship and an effort to have at least one installed on every ship produced was underway. All said and done he and pretty much every other naval officer were pretty close to taking a page out of the old Covenant and worshiping the Forerunners as intellectual gods.

Still even all this couldn't prevent his irritated mood at the brass and ONI from ripping him and his crews from shore leave. Mostly he was annoyed about having to leave Reach before the newest version of energy shielding, E shields MK5, were emplaced on his vessels. Those pretty much guaranteed, along with the new FTL slipspace drive that if his fleet was ambushed by covi loyalists he would have enough time to plot an FTL jump and escape. Still it wasn't like the old shields were incapable but like any good military man Marcus liked to hold as many cards as possible. His crews were special to him and if any of them were to die due to lack of technology he was pretty sure heads would roll over at Highcom… okay that may be a slight overreaction. Still the sight of looking over his crew in the bridge was enough to fill him with pride and dispel his foul mood.

The UNSC didn't only advance technologically since the end of the Great War; they also made great strides culturally. About 5 years after the Great War officially ended the separatist faction made it clear that the thrice damned Prophets and their brute and Kig Yar slaves would never again hold power talks began to be held about what the two factions would do politically. To the separatists the humans were the heirs to the mantle of godhood they had worshiped for millennium and beyond that the humans had garnered much respect in their ability to hold out for so long against their mighty hegemony. But on the human side there were two main camps; xenophobic radicals that called for complete isolation from the former covenant and those who held a more rational and forward thinking view of co-existence. Those camps held firm when the separatists came to the UEG senate and requested the assimilation of their two governments and peoples, including all the navies and other military structures that came along with it. The xenophobic side was horrified by the prospect not to mention quite a few government officials in the UEG who worried over the possibility of loss of power and influence. Those officials pushed the vote to the favor of the xenophobic side and for 3 years it was the same situation; the separatists would ask for assimilation and the prospect was voted against. Finally in the 3rd year of this a compromise was made. The separatists would be assimilated into the governments under the conditions that for 2 decades they could hold no major government post that did not pertain to their own species, also in all of their fleets human made AIs were installed that made it if the separatists ever rebelled against the human they would do so without a fleet. This said they were allowed to keep their fleets and their armies while retaining the same government as well. In essence they were made a client state of the UEG for two decades.

The Xenophobes cringed and rejected this with every fiber of their being but the compromise put the moderates on the side of those for assimilation and the motion carried. The assimilation began immediately and the vast majority of the public were content with the situation. After being told of the massive sacrifices the separatists went through to maintain independence from the old covenant made them well enough liked by the people accept for hard core radicals. Those sacrifices and the assistance of several UNSC fleets against the old covenant pretty much dispelled any major dissent over the assimilation. In fact many looked forward to the exchanging of culture, lifestyles and technology that would take place. This kept in mind the first three joint colonies were flooded with civilians from both sides, and soon 10 more colonies were planned to ease the growing demand. Now nearly 70 years later there were over 50 joint colonies new and old. Almost immediately after the twenty year client stage ended the 4 races of the separatists the Sanngheli, the Unggoy, the Mgalekgolo, and even a few sentient machine Huragoks found themselves in positions of power throughout the UEG. This and the wildly different cultures of the new species prompted a name and government change. Thus the New Species Alliance was born or NSA. Several rather historically minded humans made the rather loose name connection to a rather shady intelligence agency of old America. The NSA follow the same guidelines of the old UEG two branches of legislature and executive office who could hold only two terms of five years and a judicial branch. The only major change is the representation of the new races, also the UNSC pretty much still operated outside of most government they only answered to the top three houses of government.

His thoughts straying back to military matters Marcus turned his attention back to the crew steadfastly working in the bridge. The crew itself was a testament to the great strides the NSA has made, humans and Sanngheli officers working side by side supplemented by Unggoy weapon experts and navigators. That last part had come to a great shock to the UNSC, while there was no doubt zero racism towards the Unggoy within most crews of the UNSC many did wonder what true value they could be for the UNSC. The brass and marines always viewed the diminutive methane breathers as being used only as cannon fodder by the Covenant, and for the most part they were right. However many Unggoy it seems were well versed in the use and maintain of heavy weapons not only on the ground but weapon systems aboard almost all ships. Also they were apparently the chief navigators for the covenant as they showed an uncanny ability to plot near perfect slipspace runs. All this taken account the old covenant still aggressively dominated the Unggoy because of their diminutive stature and reliance on their re-breathers. It seemed after years of oppression the Unggoy had finally had enough. The news of their precious religion being a lie was the last straw on the camel's back and they violently revolted against the brutes and prophets. Supported by the Sanngheli and Mgalekgolo they freed their home world and several other methane based colonies firmly planting abandonment from the covenant.

Captain McHenery was finally ripped from his musings by the same Unggoy navigator he was considering. "10 minutes until we arrive in the Shanxi system captain", the navigator announced. Thank God. Marcus was never one for slipspace; the never ending odd grey white plane filled him with unease.

"Good, send a message fleet wide telling them to head directly towards the ice moon". The comms officer nodded curtly and went about sending his message. 10 minutes later in Shanxi space several slip space ruptures opened and spat out the large blocky vessels that designated the UNSC. After a few more minutes the ships were stopped in front of the ice moon where the anomaly originated.

Surveying the moon for several minutes Captain McHenery got more and more uneasy. There wasn't anything there nothing at all to denote the sending of the 4th R&D fleet. Finished with his survey and wanting answers he moved his hand to the communications system installed within his chair. "Head scientist Shimazu report to the bridge right away", intoned the captain to the small speaker. "Are you detecting anything Lee?" McHenery asked as a small figure dressed in a grey 19 century military dress appeared on the holopad near the captain.

"Yes sir", replied the ships onboard AI in a refined southern USA accent, "But I would rather have Ms. Shimazu here when I explain it". Marcus always wondered why the AI chose to appear and sound like the rather famous general who fought against the Union in the American civil war. Lee always replied he had a great respect for the man who fought for his people and his beliefs. He vehemently agreed those beliefs were wrong but still he liked the general's character and thought he was a very talented military mind. Soon enough the sound of high heels against the metal of the ship could be heard coming closer to the bridge. The main door shot open to admit a rather frazzled looking middle aged Asian human with shoulder length black hair dark brown almost black eyes and almost unnoticeable wrinkles beginning to form on her forehead.

"You wanted me aboard the bridge sir?" said Narina.

"Yes as you can see we have arrived at the moon where the anomaly supposedly came from, said McHenery slowly, "The only problem is there's nothing there. Not a single thing that would send Highcom and ONI into such a tizzy." Taking in his words Narina looked out the bridge's windows towards the small moon, after a much faster scan than the captain's she realized the truth to his words. A small frown grew on her face as the wrinkles on her forehead grew slightly more prominent.

"As I said I believe I can answer this problem", Lee said as he interrupted Narina and the Captain from their private musings. They said nothing simply looking at Lee as to say "Go on, tell us". "The problem can be easily explained, the anomaly is not coming from the moon's surface but within it", Lee revealed. The look of both shock and embarrassment was evident on both of their faces as they regarded the simple hypothesis they forgot to check.

"Well, have you determined the source of the anomaly?" asked Captain McHenery finally.

"Ahh yes, and this is the rather hard part while most ice moons are formed around large asteroids that accumulated water over slow periods of time the center of this moon is massive forked shaped object made of metal", Lee explained to the two.

"So why the anomaly, is it a forerunner installation?" Narina asked barely containing the glee in her voice.

After taking some time to consider this (1.5 seconds) Lee stated, "I'm not quite sure, the metal is unlike anything I have ever encountered, akin the Forerunner alloys in some ways. But that's not the interesting part", he continued. "The anomaly that was detected was a small surge of dark matter", he stated finally. "Not dangerous amounts to be sure but enough to alert the colony of something amiss"

The look on Captain Marcus' face grew grim; he knew the dangers of dark energy rather well. 'Bastards' thought Marcus, 'they didn't even warn us, heads are gonna roll in ONI and Highcom whether anyone is hurt or not'. "Is it a weapon of some kind?" asked Marcus as his mind strayed to the Halo installations.

"Without complete scans I cannot be sure", replied Lee "However preliminary scans seems to indicate that the dark matter is meant to be contained within to massive rings between the two prongs of the fork. What purpose this serves I can only guess at, but unless some species discovered how to harness the power of dark matter directly it is not a weapon", Lee proclaimed with an air of confidence.

While Captain McHenery mulled this over Narina spoke up again. "Is there any way we could safely get to the device?"

"Without damage? No other than slowly melting the ice away with the hard light systems at low levels, which would take days to do there is no way to get through the ice", answered an Unggoy weapons specialist sitting close by.

"Do we have that kind of time?" Asked Narina.

Captain McHenery chose this moment to speak up again. "No we don't for whatever reason Highcom was very adamant about this being done very quickly. Don't ask me why I didn't ask to be sent from shore leave".

"Actually I have an idea", Lee interjected. "During my scans I noticed a sort of computer interface, I accessed it and while it is very foreign to me I discovered that it could very easily be remotely activated. Once activated it seems to generate enough heat to melt the center of the Ice moon causing the outlying ice to simply breakaway"

"Did the interface tell you what this thing does?" asked Marcus and Narina near simultaneously. They both looked at each other with thinly veiled amusement etched on their faces.

"Yes while most of the data was in a bizarre foreign language some was in a form of binary, it was a rather small amount of data but from what I can tell it seems to be some form of FTL not utilizing Slipspace!" Lee finished with an excited edge to his voice.

"If you're right we need to get to this device right now, before the loyalists even get a whiff of a rumor", Captain McHenery said quickly also looking and sounding excited over the prospect.

"So is that clearance to activate the device?" Fired Lee away very quickly

"Yes, wait for my mark I'm going to send a message to the rest of the fleet to get to a safe distance", answered Captain McHenery. About a minute later, "Mark".

Lee nodded to the captain as he turned inwards and sent a tendril of his "conscience" towards the interface. After several milliseconds of going through different data he discovered the triggering sequence. 'Odd', he thought, 'it's so easy to activate this thing it's almost like it wants to be activated' shrugging away that train of thought lee activated the triggering program and returned to his AI memory chip in the UNSC _To the Future, _the fleets flagship. He and the rest of the fleet watched with fascination as the mechanism made itself know. The moon slowly began to shake the quiver then slowly crack small depressions of ice sunk lower, and then almost spontaneously the moon lost all structure and gravity and simply fell apart large drifts of ice slow expanding away from the massive metal structure. The structure itself immediately dismissed any ideas of Forerunner creation. While the metal was slightly similar the design itself was not like Forerunner design at all, it was oddly reminiscent of the covenant with its smooth aquatic lines and blue accents. Within the prongs of the fork two massive rings spun around a ball of what appeared to be pure dark energy somehow containing it and giving it form. It gave off an eerie blue light that was like nothing any of the crews had ever seen, Or anything in any of the databases.

**Turian 33****rd**** Patrol Fleet patrolling around Croton system space.**

Commander Torentus Ionelus was having a rather boring day in the void of space that made up nearly all the galaxy. It had been 3 months since the last shore leave and he and the rest of his crew were looking forward for the week to be over and being able to return to the colony. He wasn't a bad Turian by any means he knew his duty and so did his crew and they were as usual and expected performing with an air of professionalism and ease that would put any other race to shame. Yet despite this patrolling this far from Batarian and Terminus space was notoriously dull work and he'd been doing this endless drifting for three months thus his boredom.

All of this was dispelled as soon as he heard the voice of his XO. "Sir the primary relay in this system, it has gone active!" The XO nearly screeched.

Commander Ionelus paused for only a second before replying, "Send a message to the colony and tell them to warn the hierarchy it could be nothing, but it also could be everything". The XO nodded then headed to the comms officer to issue the order. The entire crew knew the dangers of opening a mass relay without the knowledge of where it lead, especially primary relays that could theoretically link to dozens of secondary relays. There could be a race as war loving as the Krogan or as peaceful as the Hanar you just didn't know despite this he smiled and nodded to himself. Perhaps today won't be so boring after all.


	2. Chapter 1 the plot thickens

Chapter 1, the plot thickens!

**May 14 2650, Arcturus Station, UNSC Headquarters.**

For nearly all of known history Earth, the home world, has been the beating heart of man. The great capital of nearly everything imaginable; it could be home to the greatest scoundrel or the most enlightened scholar. It was the center of everything that man created and was the crown jewel, even during the attacks by the Covenant Earth stood proud and defiant as her people defied extinction. Most importantly to the old Covenant Earth was the head of the serpent of the UNSC, Reach may have been the arms holding the swords and the shields but Earth was the head. Highcom, ONI the UEG government all was on Earth and if Earth could be snuffed out, the great jewel crushed, than man too would be destroyed.

Now however almost a century since the end of the Great War Earth was rebuilt, her proud and glittering mega cities rebuilt taller and larger, her navies rebuilt and redefined her sword and shield; Reach was reclaimed. One part however did not return. After the assimilation of the 5 species Human, Sangheili, Unggoy, Mgalekgolo, Huragok, a new capital needed to be built. This capital would be the heart and the head of all species in the alliance; it would be the ultimate display of friendship and power. A reminder to the rest of the galaxy how far the NSA had come. Thus Arcturus Keep was born. Construction began in 2583 in a neutral zone of space near the gas giant dubbed Themis the space station was coordinated and built between a collaboration of Sangheili and Human experts and quickly assembled by tens of thousands of Huragoks. Planned to be twice as large as the colossal high charity it took near 3 decades just to finish half of the Keep. Now 50 years since then the Keep is all but complete, holding the entirety of the NSA parliament and Executive office it is the most heavily defended station in NSA space, rivaling the defense of Earth and Sanghelios combined. Throughout the Keep the fruits of Human and separatist covenant assimilation can be seen, the architecture itself is an odd combination of the flowing aquatic lines of the covenant and the blocky utilitarian design of the UNSC. It retained the original main mushroom mega structure of the old High Charity but it also branched out into to massive wards that thrust out to the far reaches of the void. Home now to over 30 million organic life forms and many more synthetic constructs it is unrivaled in prestige and authority. To live in the upper wards of Arcturus designates wealth and authority. Now in the highest ring of the wards within the cap of the mushroom structure reside some of the most powerful officials within the UNSC.

A small nondescript building among the several hundred skyscrapers that make up the ward is about to host the most important meeting in UNSC history since the formation of the NSA. A small office room of dark pine wood floors and paneling, with a massive mahogany table taking up most of the room sat the generals, Admirals and chief executives of all species. They were about to decide the fate of the galaxy.

At the head of the table furthest from the large double doors that make up the only entrance to the room sits a man by all accounts should have withered and died long ago. His name: High Admiral Lord Terence Hood.

"Sir the last of the generals from Sanghelios have arrived", states a young nervous looking secretary.

"Good, get everyone else out of here Jim", commands Hood in the same strong but firm voice that had kept the UNSC from near destruction dozens of times. The aide nods his head and goes about clearing the room of anyone above admiral or general, the exception being two massively armored Spartan V's standing guard flanking the door.

"Generals, admirals please take a seat so we can start this meeting", Hood further commands the delegation. "Now you may be wondering why you have all been called away from your fleets or armies", Hood begins with an apprehensive air. "While I am not qualified to explain everything to you I can assure you this; in the next few hours the fate of the entire galaxy will be decided". All look to Hood with dark looks on their faces, the last time that was stated a Forerunner research station was found completely overrun by flood. The scientists that discovered the station not knowing what the flood was nearly doomed the entire NSA to a flood outbreak. "To fully enlighten you on the situation we are dealing with I would draw your attention to Director Jack Harper of the Galactic Security Agency", Hood Introduces Harper.

A Caucasian human with short finely groomed jet black hair, bright almost glowing blue eyes, and dressed in an expensive looking suit stood up to address the room. He seemed to move with an uneasy grace that seemed like it took years to practice even though he was clearly very young. When he spoke he did so with such a smooth and commanding voice you could almost confuse him for a high ranking Admiral who'd commanded in the navy for many years.

"As High Admiral Hood said we face a matter of upmost delicacy and danger", Harper said as his impressive blue eyes swept across the room. "For years we have been content in our belief that our government and the tattered remnants of the old covenant were the only spacefaring civilizations in the galaxy. I am here to tell you that that assumption is wrong". After Harper finished speaking there was a few moments of deathly silence, the officers and officials all looking liked they'd been hit over the head with a gravity hammer. Then all hell broke loose.

"Where the hell did you get this information?!" One Sangheili Admiral roared.

"How can we now it's accurate?!" Screamed another.

"I'll become a prophet of the old covenant before I believe anything you spooks say!" Trumpeted a rather grizzled looking Human Admiral.

The room then proceeded to descend into further states of chaos as officers and officials from different species began to roar at each other about how this is just a plot to grant one of them emergency powers. Another thing that the UNSC retained from the assimilation is the granting of emergency dictator like powers to the military in a time of war. Such powers would make the High Admiral selected by the senate have near unlimited power; such dictators could order the destruction of an entire race if necessary. Luckily the rest of the High Admirals had the power to impeach such a ruthless warlord and replace him or her with one of their own.

Such was the room descending into something that could quickly become a brawl, the only people quietly sitting, (or in the case of the two Spartans standing), were Lord Hood and Director Harper with an oddly happy grin on his face as he looked around at his handy work. Lord Hood on the other hand looked like he might explode.

"ENOUGH!" Hood finally exploded. All heads swiveled to his direction, several Unggoy admirals were hastily let down and more than a few humans were dropped from the clutches of several Sangheili. It took a lot to anger High Admiral Hood these days but the sight of his charges, the entirety of the room save the Spartans, descend into chaos made his blood boil. "You are the best and the brightest in the Entirety of the NSA! You are all here because you have shown great aptitude, ingenuity and skill in the face of danger! You have all stared down the face of death at one point or another and if I hear so much as a raised voice from anyone else in this room I swear to all that is holy you will be court martialed and made a cook!" Hood finished his tirade with a huff. "And Director Harper you will contain your theatrics or I will personally see you expelled from ONI! Is that clear?"

"Yes High Admiral", came the immediate dutiful response from the entire room.

"Good, now Director I believe you give an explanation to all this, preferably without theatrics".

"Of course sir, now as I have said we are not the sole space faring civilization anymore. ONI has had this information for little over a decade now and it has been decided that it is time to act. We are not here to validate this claim, as I can assure you it's correct, we are here to decide what we will do with this new civilization", Harper announced with a slightly subdued tone to his voice now. "Now Cerberus can you please bring up a map of the galaxy for us?"

"Yes sir", said the GSA smart AI Cerberus as the map of the entire galaxy flickered on above the center of the table from small almost unnoticeable hologram projectors.

"Now then I am going to explain to you why it is paramount we deal with this government as soon as possible. First I'd show you all our territory. Large swaths of the map became tinted a deep crimson red. "Next color all non-colonized and unmapped space grey". The rest of the map became light depressing grey. "Finally I'd like to show you the rest what this new government's territory looks like". At this large circles of deep blue popped up separated by each other by seas of grey.

"It looks like Swiss cheese", remarked a Human Admiral, "Who in their right mind would colonize like this? You can't possible defend all of that well enough. And besides the rest of the space might not all be garden worlds but I'm sure there's at least some value to it".

"Ah yes and that brings me to my next point", Harper began, "As I have said ONI has been observing this Civilization for some time this apparent Citadel Council is very restricted technologically. They base all of their technology on the theory of the mass effect, a form of FTL by which the mass of an object or ship is altered to allow it to travel at FTL speeds. That said we have never developed this tech as it utilizes dark energy and as I stated before it severely limits technological advancement. They however jumped on the mass effect bandwagon as remnants of another ancient race, the Protheans, allowed very easy reverse engineering", Harper stated as if he was almost reading from a text book.

"Another reason we have not touched this tech is because it utilizes a very dangerous, very unstable element: element zero. This element is the crux in almost all their technology as it powers their FTL drives, weapon systems and shield technology. This makes it very easy to build or maintain systems but utterly destroys any innovation in either different tech or power taxing systems. Now to answer why their territory looks like it does I need to bring you up to speed on another little piece of tech: the mass relays. These little babies have by all estimates existed for near uncountable amount of time, definitely predating the Forerunners by millions of years", Harper continued in his now bored sounding voice.

A hologram of the device incased in what looked like an ice moon appeared. "These relays allow near instantaneous travel between thousands of light-years. Now you may be asking yourself, if these relays allow such fast travel why does their territory look so..." Harper paused looking for the right word, "looks so incomplete. You see these relays work in pairs and because of that the area in between dubbed 'relay dead zones' is uncolonizable by their governments". A new map appears listing all known relay locations; none of them were in NSA territory. "Because of this if we were to continue as we were our governments may not have contact for the next several centuries. That is if we didn't just discovery a relay within our own borders", Harper then gestures to the hologram above the table. "This relay was found on the outskirts of Shanxi space nearly 20 years ago, before the idea of the colony even existed".

"And why has this machine not been recovered yet?" Queried a rather unassuming looking Unggoy.

"Simple to tamper with any relays in their government is considered a grave offense; they seem to have a way to keep tabs on all their relays in known space and they'll quickly send a patrol fleet to deal with the offending party who tampered with the device", Harper answered.

"All well and good but what is the point to all this yammering", intoned a rather bored looking Sangheili General.

"The point is that we have to decide what to do with this government. If you were all to read the history we have managed to take from this so called extranet, you will be able to see they will react to great hostility towards us. Most would even see our good friends the Huragoks as dangerous machines that would destroy us the moment they had the chance". There were many snorts from around the room at this; the pacifistic nature of the Huragoks was well known. "No it seems to me there is only one way to deal with an entire government built around rules the outlaws entire species in our government; they must be brought under heel and quickly".

"What do you mean", asked Hood quite worried where this may lead.

"It is quite simple really, this council made up of the strongest of the species in their government rules over the others in tyrannical fashion, we will liberate the other races and bring the council to answer from the many crimes they have committed", Harper again gained his commanding and smooth voice, "We will instigate a little accident at the relay allow an invasion of Shanxi perhaps the destruction of several ships, and when they think they have the upper hand we send forth our fleets and liberate they colony! With this great act of war the Council has committed it will be only a short order for the NSA to grant emergency powers to the UNSC and to declare war. Once this has come to pass we will send forth our great fleets from all corners of our mighty alliance, we will make this Council quake and they will have no choice to make many changes… our changes!" Looks from the military men that once harbored suspicion and worry at Harper's words slowly changed to agreement and understanding as he unveiled his plan; his silver tongue quickly making the generals and admirals see his point of view. "We shall be the instrument in the destruction of tyranny! The bringer of freedom and knowledge to entire species shackled to tyranny and squalor. And above all we shall ensure that never again shall the people of the NSA fear invasion from any species!" A great roar of applause grew up from the entire room even the usually stoic Hood had a smile on his face at Harper's inspiring words.

"It goes without saying that what we suggest is underhanded and cruel, and may very well lead to the deaths of many in the UNSC, but if we ignore this opportunity and allow this council to level the playing field think how many more will die. I for one agree and put full confidence in Director Harper's plan", at Hood's statement all remaining disagreement for the motion was crushed nearly instantaneously and after a quick vote the motion carried.

After the meeting Hood stayed thinking on what had happened, the galaxy was changing and he sometimes felt like he was powerless to affect it anymore. Three years after the end of the war a Forerunner installation was found that specialized in medical research; after going through all this research the UNSC developed top secret technology they dubbed nanites. The nanites theoretically had the power to alter or remove the aging genes in human chromosomes creating immortality, but they had never been tested and many worried about side effects. Hood catching word of this volunteered to be injected with the nanites, if there was even a slight chance he would be able to prolong his ability to protect the people he loved he would do it. Now nearly a century earlier he wondered if it was worth it, only two others had been injected with the nanites, Dr. Halsey the new director of ONI, and the Spartan John Sierra-117 the only gift he would agree to, being able to live with Cortana forever. But know Hood wondered if it was worth it he had seen 3 generations of UNSC leadership and he was getting tired, this war may be the end of it. 'I'll weather this storm for the sake of the Nation I love but at the end of this I deserve a nice long rest, a permanent rest' Hood thought with finality. He then moved to make the necessary preparations for Harpers plan.

**A/N I know not the great first contact battle that you all wanted but I thought it was necessary to finally introduce some plot to the story and answer some questions before we get to the meat of the story. Don't worry tomorrow the chapter you're all waiting for will be complete and let me tell you it's quite nice if I do say so myself. Until then thank you for all your continued support, as a first time writer I was nervous if anyone would like this story, I'm glad and honored you have taken the time to read and judge my work.**


	3. why are they always trigger happy?

"_All warfare is based on deception…" – that one Russian guy form COD…don't judge me_

**Conquerors they Rise Chapter 2**

** May 21, 2650, Turian 33****rd**** patrol fleet Croton system space.**

"Commander we have arrived at the relay", the harsh words of the Turian navigator forcing Commander Ionelus from his thoughts.

"Good, are all ships accounted for?" asked the Ionelus.

"Yes sir all ships coming out of FTL speeds and forming up around the _Swift Justice_", came the quick reply.

At this Ionelus paused to look over his fleet from the holographic display where the galaxy map would usually reside. After he sent word to Croton announcing his discoveries at the relay they had supplemented his patrol fleet with several vessels from the Croton defense fleet. Now his patrol was at a nice 12 frigates, 5 cruisers, and his own dreadnaught _Swift Justice. _It was a bit overkill if it was just pirates or slavers desperate for a hideout, but none in Citadel space would ever risk another Rachni incursion. All and all he felt rather confident he could handle anything the galaxy threw at him. The only thing he truly was unhappy about was that insufferable commander Croton's Primarch had sent with their reinforcements, by the name of Saren Areterius the little pyjack, had the nerve to arrive and demand command over all the frigate wolfpacks. The only reason Ionelus agreed is because he didn't want to risk the other ships from Croton. So now he had to deal with that ignorant ass telling him how to do HIS job.

Sighing Ionelus prepared communications to deliver a fleet wide message. As he sent the hail to all ships the tiny figures of the captains of the various vessels started to appear on his holopad. Clenching his mandibles slightly together in a Turian show of distaste he noticed that the ignorant brat Saren didn't bother to show up to listen to him. The brat had instead sent his XO to listen to Ionelus' orders. Forcing away the urge to blow the bridge of Saren's ship to pieces he looked over the other officers and noted to his pleasure all others had shown up.

"Alright men, I don't expect this to be anything more than slavers and pirates, if it is you do it by the books and blow them to smithereens or disable their ships. But and this is a massive but, if they our unknowns of any kind you stay the HELL away and let the _Swift Justice _do the talking. Above all do not for the love of the spirits attack and less open fired upon is that clear?!" Ionelus finished with great emphasis.

"Yes sir!" roared the Turian officers in the proper show of respect and difference required to a commanding officer. Even the brat's XO seemed to have proper respect, Ionelus quickly entertained the idea of replacing Saren with him, but he dismissed it as it would cause more problems than Ionelus cared to deal with.

"Alright then if that is all let's move it out and show why no one disobeys the Council, and by extension the Hierarchy!".

**May 21, 2650, Shanxi Space 4****th**** R&D fleet, flagship**_** To the Future.**_

"…And you're sure that it will not harm any of the ships?" Captain McHenery questioned.

Narina made a few quick motions on her holopad and looked back to McHenery as hordes of data started to scroll below her hologram.

"You could read the data if you'd like, but I'm sure you'd much rather take mine and Lee's word for it", Narina responded dryly.

"I must agree with the Head scientist sir", Lee began, "While most of the information stored within the computer interface is in an alien language the part in binary quite clearly states that this "relay" is not a weapon and will work on any vessel or object passed through it".

"Fine", McHenery finally relented, "But we will be sending a probe through first, for all we know this relay could take us to the center of another ice moon".

Narina scoffed clearly unhappy at the delay to her research, but she knew better and secretly understood how necessary McHenery's caution was.

"Fine but after the probe returns you agree to send us in?" Narina asked.

At this McHenery merely waved his hand to say an exasperated yes. This back and forth had been going on for nearly 2 hours ever since Lee managed to activate the device. Almost immediately Narina demanded he send in the fleet, she had always been a rather bold impatient person; odd traits for a scientist. Still even with Lee's initial belief that the device wasn't a weapon McHenery wouldn't risk going to close to the device, there were too many unanswered questions and McHenery had always been a cautious man. That caution had saved his and the entire fleet's lives many a time during old covenant raids.

Sitting down in the captain's chair he did actually prepared to read Narina's file of data on the device, he was the CO of a R&D fleet after all. Just as he was about to bring up the data on his holopad Lee flickered to life next to him.

"Yes?" McHenery asked not harshly but a little bit exasperated; Lee took a little too much joy in tormenting McHenery as of late. However gone was the AI's joking face, it was replaced with his stern angry grandfather face, a man that had seen war.

"Sir the device is creating massive energy discharges I think it is fully activating!" Lee answered with a worried tone to his southern drawl.

"I haven't sent Narina the probe, I told her to stay away from that bloody thing!" McHenery practically growled.

"Sir you misunderstand me; it isn't spiking from anything on our end", Lee dutifully replied the fear in his voice very apparent.

"But that means…" McHenery's eyes widened as he realized the implications of what was happening. He dashed as fast as he could to the communications officer and nearly threw the poor man out of his seat. Quickly inputting the desired code he sent a fleet wide message.

"All ships prepare for defensive maneuvers, form up defensive positions around the science boats; something is coming through the device!" McHenery felt faint as he shouted the last part, he could only imagine terrible beings ten times as worse than the covenant rending his fleet in two like scrap metal.

A loud and blaring alarm began to sound on the ships fleet wide. Two short bursts, a general call to arms and stations, one step away from combat stance. McHenery grimly stood at the viewing platform looking as the massive rings in the center of the device whirled faster and faster. The blue hue got brighter and brighter and just as suddenly it started it ended with a blue flash and with new ships in the void.

* * *

"Sir perfect jump all ships accounted for and preparing to swipe the system", called out the Turian navigator who had first discovered the active primary relay back at Croton space.

"Good", responded Ionelus "Have all ships form up on me standard defensive positions".

The standard defensive position for a small fleet like Ionelus' was to have any capital ships dead center way back where they can use their massive range to their advantage, cruisers creating a frontline for the fleet screening the capital ships and finally the frigate wolfpacks at the sides prepared to out flank the enemy if they were foolish enough to get to knife fighting range.

However, only ten seconds after they had jumped into the system all hell broke loose for the Turian fleet.

"Sir I'm we've found the perpetrators who activated the relay, they're not matching any known signatures!" the navigator reported to Ionelus.

At this Ionelus looked out the main viewing window at the front of the bridge what he saw astounded him. An entire fleet of massive blocky vessels clearly built for a sole purpose: war. The utilitarian design of the ships themselves spoke of their ability to take fire and return the favor. Even from this distance the thick armor plating and massive mass accelerator guns were apparent. All of the ships except for much smaller ships which he assumed were transports of some kind were larger than a cruiser. 2 of them were the size of a large dreadnaught 1.2 kilometers by the look of it, but what truly took his breath away was the obvious flagship near the center of the fleet. The vessel in a word was immense. Nearly as large as the destiny ascension at 3.5 kilometers it was the second largest ship he had ever seen, the three mass accelerators ran across nearly a third of the ship, however this ship unlike the others bore a more aquatic design than the others, it still retained the overall blocky feel but at times it smoothed out and gently curved with a bright silvery metal replacing the dull grey of the other ships.

However even if sheer alien _design _of the ships wasn't enough the alien markings on the massive hull were. _UNSC To the Future_, the vessel was obviously a warship so he assumed it was a navy designation and the ships name. He was interrupted by his thoughts however when he noticed Saren's frigates ignoring his orders and moving closer to the fleet.

* * *

"Sir with all due respect we are violating Commander Ionelus' direct order to not fire on the unknowns", Saren's XO Sidonis Taronus hesitantly said.

"And I'd be violating the Primarch of Croton's order if I didn't fire on the lawbreakers", Saren snapped in impatience at the dim witted XO, honestly he had been there when the Primarch gave him his orders.

"We will fire on this fleet and Ionelus will be forced to assist us with half his fleet already attacking, at that point we'll wipe out the primitives invade their home planet and the Turian's will have a nice new spacefaring client race", Saren stated with conviction, as if he was stating the obvious.

"But sir the size of those ships…" Sidonis began.

"Size is not everything Sidonis", Saren interrupted irritably, "We outnumber the primitives two to one and they don't even use Ezoo, which means no barriers, no FTL and very weak main guns! We'll be doing a favor to dominate this race, we'll provide them with true technology and guidance, they won't be manipulated by the Asari or dissected on by the Salarians, and they will prosper under TURIAN rule".

Finally sensing defeat Sidonis merely nodded and prepared the other of the officers for battle.

Saren flared his mandibles out in a smile as he looked at the primitives massive ship, he couldn't wait to see it rent in half by the might of a Turian dreadnaught.

* * *

McHenery was getting slightly nervous as soon as the ships appeared he had asked Lee to see if he could access their systems, it was unlikely as most ships either had AIs of their own on board or very strong counter measures. Although the ships were rather small looking compared to his massive flagship he knew looks could be deceiving and at the least Lee could tell him the ships capability. Putting his worry to the side for a moment he turned to his Sangheili XO San Vandas to issue orders.

"Have all weapons systems charged up and ready to go, Longswords Sabers, and Seraphs ready to launch at a moment's notice, we will not be taken down easily!" McHenery commanded.

The eight foot tall Sangheili nodded and pressed his hand between his hearts, a gesture of respect in Sangheili culture, McHenery responded with a traditional salute before San jogged of to issue the orders. As the Sangheili jogged off Lee finally flickered back onto the ship looking slightly haggard.

"Well what have you discovered?" Questioned McHenery.

"Not much", Lee replied with an anxious air, "They have very powerful firewalls, it's almost like their systems are not meant to be accessed by AIs. I managed to remain undetected by their security systems but I didn't try to break through the firewalls, it probably would have alerted them to my presence and that probably wouldn't have helped diplomatic relations"

"If we manage to have diplomatic relations", McHenery replied darkly, "We've been trying to hail them repeatedly but it's like you said their systems are so…foreign, we haven't been able to get a connection on anything, I'm ordering a radio connection as a last resort but I have a bad feeling about this…"

* * *

"WHAT IS THAT LITTLE PYJACK DOING?!" Ionelus was a rather hard Turian to anger but he lost stability and composure when he asked what Saren thought he was doing. The little brat only said he was doing the will of the Hierarchy as he moved his frigates into attack range. Panicking Ionelus did everything he could short of shooting down Saren's ships to stop him. But the small ships just got closer and closer.

"Sir, energy spiking from Saren's ships, they're firing on the unknowns!" Shouted the Turian Weapons coordinator of the fleet as Saren's ships finally got into range. All of the blood drained from Ionelus' face as he saw the small ships shudder as they fired they're mass accelerator weapons, the bolts glittering blue across the void as they streaked towards the alien vessels. He braced himself just as they were about to eviscerate one of the cruiser class ships, and were stopped by a massive orange hexagonal barrier surrounding the cruiser. The bolts seemed to simply be absorbed as the points of impact shimmered and turned brighter for a split second then just as quickly as the barrier appeared vanished. Ionelus' jaw hung open for a split second before the realization of what Saren just did hit him. 'The brat doomed us all'.

"Captain McHenery the frigate _Einstein _reporting the shots have only drained shields to 43 percent, no hull damage", reported the comms officer. Just like that all trepidation was removed from McHenery as he considered the lay out of the battlefield, if the small corvette class ships were any indication of the rest of the alien fleet this would be a cakewalk. The _Einstein's _shields would not hold out against another salvo from those corvettes but a couple MAC shots should be enough to scatter the bastards while he and one of the cruisers focused on the frigates and the light cruiser of the alien fleet.

"Order all ships to launch fighters, bombers and interceptors", McHenery began to issue commands assuming the commander voice drilled into him at the academy, "Spin up all MACs on the frigates and have the frigates destroy the corvettes assisting the small craft. The cruisers and _To the Future _form up to take down their frigates and light cruiser. Lee acquire the fleet a firing solution".

"Already done sir", Lee stated as the solution popped up on the HUDs of all the personal on the fleet.

"Good, fleet hold fire on the larger ships allow the fighters and bombers disable them we need their commanding officers to explain this atrocity. Save the DEWs and the plasma projectors until we need them; hold all archer pods as well". 'Let's hope this goes well' McHenery his trepidation at this returning slightly.

* * *

Saren was enraged and terrified by the turn of events. His frigates had opened fire on one of the cruisers only to watch as the ship was completely unaffected by the salvo. Granted he only had frigates firing but he had TWELVE of them on ONE ship and they did jack shit. Now the other cruisers were protecting the initial target as it probably regenerated its barriers. His only hope was that Ionelus would destroy the fools with his dreadnaught and cruisers before the shit really did hit the fan.

That was he still had hope until the three cruisers turned around now facing his frigates head on and returned fire. The truly massive gun stationed at the brow of each ship shuddered as it released a massive yellow slug that streaked at his ships at a rather fast rate he frantically ordered evasive maneuvers but was too late as the slugs slammed into 3 of his ships. 2 of the ships were spared instant annihilation as the barriers were decimated and massive hull damage was reported, they were literally floating dead in the void as all major systems were destroyed by the massive slugs. The third frigate was not so "lucky", it was hit one after the other by the slugs the first doing the same as it did to the other frigates and the second hit utterly destroying the ship; there simply was nothing left. In the first 20 seconds of this engagement he had already lost one fourth of his frigates and hadn't even done superficial damage to the cruiser he had focused fire on.

The frigates from that point on were able to avoid the massive slugs with high mobility and daring evasive maneuvers but were unable to fire on the ships because of this. Saren shuddered and began to order a full retreat back to Ionelus that's when he got his next surprise.

* * *

While Saren was nearly having a heart attack keeping his frigates from being rendered into slag Ionelus was having fun watching his dreadnaught and cruisers fire on the massive flagship…and view it do nothing, if anything it merely emboldened his enemy. In a feat of desperation he launched all fighters and begged to the Spirits they were able to screen a retreat. That hope was crushed when the aliens unleashed their next wonderful surprise

* * *

Teranus Nerocanus was finally at peace. He had lived a long life as a Turian fighter pilot; he'd served in countless raids and battles against pirates and slavers in the Attican Traverse. Now however he knew his luck had finally run out, if a fit of desperation Commander Ionelus ordered him and the rest of the fighters to screen a retreat. The ships had managed to cut off the retreat for Ionelus at the Relay by completely scattering and out flanking Saren's frigate wolfpacks which meant they had to do a jump into the deep void between systems, as they had no star charts for light years around them in this system they had to run at least a quick scan before they could even consider jumping. But that meant they needed time and time was something that could only be bought by sacrifice. Which meant he and the rest of the fighters would be obliterated by the main guns, missiles and point defense systems of the ships getting closer to the fighters. That was until hundreds of alien fighters just suddenly appeared in front and behind his fighters the latter streaking off at immense speed while the former decimated the front ranks with missiles and what could only be described as laser bolts.

However despite all the destruction reigning down around him, his fellow Turians simply being outclassed in every way by the strange fighters, the one that fired massive bombs that decimated dozens of ships at a time and the fact that the aliens had barriers on FIGHTERS he was still at peace. He was still at peace when several laser bolts rammed into his ship cooking the metal and frying the circuitry sending his ship to a sudden halt, and he was still at peace when a missile engulfed his ship in a field of fire and he knew no more.

* * *

Ionelus knew he was doomed when he saw his fighters get decimated by enemy fighters; the final nail in the coffin was when about 3 hundred more contacts flew towards his cruisers and dreadnaught. He made a split second decision.

"Saren pull your frigates back only your ships have the speed to get to the relay uncooked", he sent to Saren's flagship.

"And you?" At least the brat seemed to sound ashamed and terrified as he saw what his actions had wrought.

"The _Swift Justice _and the Cruisers are going to buy you some time", don't waste what I'm giving you boy, warn the Hierarchy, warn the Council. The Hierarchy can't lift the weight of YOUR sins alone". As he said the last line to Saren he cut the connection and looked about his crew, they had all heard the transmission and had grim determined looks on their faces. 'They were good Turians' Ionelus thought 'they would die letting the Turian who doomed them to death escape to save other Turian lives. Ionelus had never been more proud of his crew then at that moment.

"Jump right in front of the aliens, and fire everything on the flagship and dreadnaughts", he nearly whispered.

* * *

Saren did what he was told he hated retreating as did every Turian, but he understood that this could all work to his advantage. He decided that to maximize his chance of escape; only one other frigate would get the message to flee. He watched with an odd sense of sadness as he saw the frigates he had commanded for less than an hour finally got caught and destroyed by fighters that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He shook his head as he reminded himself that attachment was a weakness and that their deaths would help further his own career and power. The two 190 meter ships managed to slip in between the cruisers cutting off the relays, dodging powerful point defense systems as they did, however as they neared escape the frigate next to him luck finally ran out as it was cut in half by the laser defense system. Saren shrugged his shoulders as every other Turian around him watched in horror at the destruction, now there were no other witnesses and the crew on his ship was loyal to HIM to the last. They entered the relays range and jumped to Croton space.

* * *

Captain McHenery nodded with satisfaction as he viewed the one sided dogfights going on kilometers away from him. He grew even more satisfied when he viewed the corvettes that had initially opened fire on the _Einstein _get cut down to two corvettes that managed to run his blockade. Wait make that one, as he saw the other split in half a small fireball getting snuffed out by the vacuum of space as the engines went critical and atomized the ship. He was slightly worried about the one corvette escaping but considered it largely irrelevant at the time. Just as he thought this the 4 frigates and single light cruiser glows bright blue for a split second before they disappeared and reappeared right in his face. Immediately opening fire with their weak main guns and torpedoes that did massive damage to shields, the _To the Futures _shields were cut down to 45 percent, and even some of the lighter forerunner plating on the bridge was ripped off as its weaker fastening gave way to the missiles strange power. In the end it was largely pointless he merely decided to end this game and spun up the plasma launchers near the top of his ship.

Due to the slow speed and natural arch of firing plasma, projectors were generally only used at close to moderate range with the enemy. Luckily for McHenery that's exactly the range this battle was taking place at. He watched with fascination as he always did as the plasma bolts arched gracefully towards the frigates and light cruiser, what happened next he didn't expect. The plasma literally went right through the enemies' shields completely bypassing them as they cooked the armor plating right off the ships and caused massive explosions within the ships superstructure. This along with the hard light point defense system was the final nail in the frigates coffins as they simply collapsed debris and alien bodies floating out into the black void. The one light cruiser was the only survivor, but it was dead in the water its main gun completely sheared off revealing that it ran the length of the ship, the engines of the cruiser itself seemed dead as it sputtered and sent sparks across the hull. Or rather what was left of the hull? He wasn't completely sure the melted slag could be called that any more.

"This is McHenery I want boarding parties on that ship now before it falls apart", McHenery commanded as he surveyed the field of debris littering the void around the "relay", the battle was over and he had only lost several fighters that had been ganged up on by at least a dozen of the enemy fighters before they were eviscerated by his bombers. All in all he felt giddy, never even when fighting the old covenant did the fleet ever come out unscathed, but in this fight outnumbered two to one he had utterly crushed the aliens and without losing a single ship! He didn't know who these aliens were or why they had attacked the NSA but he did know they were doomed.

* * *

Ionelus cracked his eyes open, he felt awful. After he had jumped in front of the flagship and dreadnaught and had promptly got smashed, the bridge of the _Swift Justice_ was hit by one of those overpowered GURDIAN laser beams the aliens used. As he looked around he noted dully the breach was sealed off by the barriers that would activate in case of a hull breach. that was of small comfort to him as he saw at least half of the bridge was gone, along with half of its crew. He slumped down and prepared for the death that never came; he looked up and realized the massive ships' weapons had gone silent and merely sat there as a hanger bay door opened on the flagship. 'They're boarding' Ionelus thought. He made another decision that he doubted many other Turian commanders would make. Dragging himself to emergency ship wide communications he made his unorthodox command known.

"Turians you have fought bravely and honorably in the face of horrendous odds, know that I have never been more proud to be your commander", Ionelus paused thinking on how to word the next part, "You have been trained to only follow orders that aid in the Hierarchy to gain strength and prosper, and now I say this to all who can hear my lay down your arms to the aliens who have deigned to show us mercy where we would have shown none. Many of you think surrender is worse than death but I ask you what will aid the Hierarchy more, Turians living to fight another day or death notices sent to weeping mothers and lovers back home?" Ionelus himself felt sick at giving the order but he knew he had no choice, he only begged the Spirits that he could avert the coming storm to the Hierarchy.

**A/N I'm really super-duper sorry this took so long to get to you guys. I promise from now on whenever I make a promise I'll be sure to keep it. Life REALLY got it the way of finishing the chapter and whenever I sat down to write it came off as weak and rather lazy sounding, even now I don't fully like it that's why I'm stopping before I royally screw over the boarding or the invasion of Shanxi/ Hierarchy reaction… yes that's a massive foreshadow of the next chapter. Still guys as I stated before I am overawed that so many of you like my story so PLEASE review to give me your honest opinion even if you hate it a good critic would really help me improve my writing and by extension this story. Until then JoetheHighlord out.**


	4. Chapter 4 The Mustache twirling Villan

_We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. –Winston Churchill British Prime Minister _

**Chapter 3 the plot begins.**

**May 22 2650, Croton system Space, Primarch Bruttianus' Estate**

It started out a calm peaceful day. It was like most days of fate and history, its passing noted only by those that have the power to mold history. For the day started with peace, joy, hate, conflict and pain like any other day but would end in a decision that would forever change the course of history. This day would pave the way for the greatest empire the galaxy had ever seen. And so it began in the system called Croton by the Turian Hierarchy a day that would live in infamy, a date that would transcend time and space; the true reclamation has begun and none shall stand in the path of fate.

Primarch Bruttianus was a harsh bitter old creature. Yet you would never hear him say that, to him he was strong and proud, a proper Turian he would say. To him the death of his family to Batarian slavers and his young life in crushing poverty only made him stronger, it taught him to avoid attachment and to be ruthless towards your enemies. These ideals he carried on to the Turian Hierarchy and if there was thing Bruttianus was it would be crafty, he knew how much his ideals were looked down upon by "proper Turians" so he kept them a secret to him and his enemies. Soon he had graduated the Academy with the highest marks ever witnessed in the history of the Hierarchy; needless to say he took several advantages that many other Turians would have found rather distasteful. He then found himself thrust into the navy and his webs only grew, little by little he preyed on the darker side of every Turian in the navy through bribes, threats and not a little intimidation; in only 3 years he was promoted to Commodore of a patrol fleet.

Being made Commodore he continued his "bizarre and unorthodox practices" or so the military higher ups called it, he didn't care what they thought of him what he did brought results; in all the 36 engagements he had commanded in the patrol fleet he did not once lose. Then again a record in Turian history he was made Rear Admiral of the patrol fleets this continued for another two years and another 43 perfect engagements for Bruttianus. Then in the third year the Admiral of the fleet suffered a very unfortunate ambush at the hands of slavers wanting retribution to the loses suffered at the talons of Bruttianus, little did they know the informant they paid massive amounts of credits to was none other than Bruttianus himself. Of course there was some speculation over at Palaven about how the pirates knew exactly where the Admiral's patrol was headed but they had no concrete evidence so the case was dropped as an unfortunate accident. Bruttianus was then made Admiral of the patrol fleets; his first act was vengeance against the pirates for the loss of such a good Turian and "friend". He then put up a big show of searching for the pirates' lair for 3 months, "found" the moon base of sizable population and promptly ravaged every single population center on it. His actions were called cowardice and a war crime by the population of Batarians and Turians alike, the military however was scared to act, through the years he had made powerful friends and enemies to the Hierarchy, to remove him would be suicide.

This emboldened the young Admiral and for the next 50 years he exacted his own method of justice and tactics against every slaver and pirate on the border with Batarian and Atticus space. This finally ended in the 58 year of his reign of terror in the fleet when he completely destroyed a Batarian slaver moon, unknowingly killing 3 council Spectres. The council had finally had enough, threatened with awful sanctions by the council the Hierarchy gently and quickly removed him from power. To the public and most of the lower ranking military he honorably retired from the military to live his life on one of the Hierarchy's distant colonies. He however knew he was being punished; his title and estate was just a cage, a gilded cage but a cage all the same. Now Bruttianus chafes in his bonds, waiting for the day he will strike out and exact his revenge on the council and the Hierarchy. He knew his time was drawing near.

As he recalled his life both a smile and a frown threatened to overcome his features, happiness at how quickly his plans for revenge were falling into place, and anger at the cowardice of the Hierarchy. Unlike most Turians, he elected to recall the days where Turians were above the Council's dastardly influence, a time where Turians could have stretched across the stars subjugating all life, including the council. But now his people were chained to the will of the Council, chained there by stubborn lazy Turians content by being manipulated by the Asari and Salarians as dogs on a leash. He had recognized this status at an early age, the pathetic pyjacks couldn't defend themselves so they sought a trained hound to bark and bite at their beck and call. He would not stand for this he always found a way to slip away from their weak rules and regulations, they had no idea how to fight war the rules made him weak; for the other side had no rules. And above all the Council had taken his fleets and had neutered him, or so they thought. For despite all the grandeur of the council, the wise Asari, the clever Salarians and the thrice damned Spectres they had all been deceived by him. He retained his powerful connections in the Hierarchy, officers and Government officials who like him wanted to change the status quo, to one controlled by the Hierarchy. That was 30 years ago where he already had half of the Hierarchy's military under his belt, over the years of his imprisonment, he had secretly controlled the other half, bribing an official there, indicate a "traitorous" officer there, even the assassination of a couple Primarchs. Now he was ready the entire Hierarchy was behind him save a few holdouts but they would be crushed quickly, he need only let loss the varrens of war. However he was interrupted from his thoughts from the emergency beeping on his Omni tool; it was of dire importance then.

"Yes?" He growled a tad bit unkindly, like he always did.

"Sir, Saren has returned", Said his head of staff as the Turian's head and shoulders appeared on his Omni tool. He seemed to have an uneasy edge to his voice. "It's only one ship sir!"

At this Bruttianus raised his brow slightly, 'that does not bode well' he thought.

"Very well order Saren to my office right away", Bruttianus commanded.

"It will be done my Lord".

* * *

About 2 hours later Bruttianus heard booted footsteps approaching getting closer to his office. He quickly sat himself behind his metal desk assuming his perpetual scowl and intimidating anger, it was the only correct way to deal with subordinates. Just as he sat himself down he heard a hesitant knock on his door.

"It isn't locked", Bruttianus stated simply. The door shot open to admit a slightly flustered looking Turian. Stepping forward Saren quickly snapped off a salute to Bruttianus. Bruttianus returned the salute then motioned towards a chair.

"Sit I'm sure you have much to tell me", Bruttianus said with an icy edge to his voice. Saren nodded slowly clearly understanding the predicament he was in, Bruttianus was not exactly known to be forgiving. He then began his tale…

"… and then he ordered me and the frigates that remained to retreat, to maintain my image I wisely refrained from telling the other frigates to fall back, only one other followed me, it was destroyed before it could run the blockade". Saren finished his horrific tale and sat back waiting Bruttianus' response. Bruttianus mulled all Saren had told him, these unknowns were powerful indeed, but it may yet work to his advantage, it truly didn't matter anyway; they didn't have element zero which means no FTL. Their home world will be subjugated by a true Turian fleet. He looked over at Saren then, the boy looked quite worried, probably fearing the Bruttianus would just throw him aside and look for a new commander.

"Don't worry boy I'm not upset", Bruttianus said in the most sincere voice he could manage. Saren's eyes widened at this but he quickly regained his composure.

"What will you do about these aliens then? They could come charging across the relay at any second!" Saren yelled his fear getting the better of him. Bruttianus only looked at him hard then, waved his hands.

"Peace boy, look at this logically, true they are probably elated at trashing a fleet but they are most likely cautious, the last thing they want is to charge their only defense into what could be a trap". Saren nodded; it did make sense. Bruttianus continued. "The best thing we can do right now is to put this on the backburner, keep your crew quiet, I'll pull a few favors and get a true fleet to blockade the relay. For this will all work to our advantage", Saren then looked at him confusion clear in his eyes.

"What do you mean…" he began, gears turning in his head at what his Lord might mean.

"Simple my boy it is time to act", Bruttianus stated with conviction. He shut off his Omni tool and motioned for Saren to do the same. "The fleets are all in position; the coup will begin as soon as I give the order. We'll start small; just the hierarchy for now. The councilor and his supporters are soon to be going on a survey of the colonies on the edge of Turian space, a PR trip if you will, the fleets will be waiting for him", Bruttianus eyes seemed to burn with anticipation as he revealed his plan to Saren, "I leave for the fleets now you my boy must make sure everything stays correct on this end of things, keep an eye on Croton, the relay and alert me the moment something happens. If all goes to plan we'll be seeing each other very shortly", Bruttianus finished. Saren stood clearly understanding this was a dismissal, he snapped off a proud salute to his lord stating.

"And this is why I am but the student", His admiration was clear in his voice.

"Don't gush boy makes me want to gouge out my eyes", Bruttianus snapped, however he softened slightly and said, "Besides there must come a time when the student surpasses the master". He then surprised Saren by grasping Saren's talons in a shake. Saren responded then stepped out of the room his booted heels clacking on the marble floor.

Bruttianus sighed making the necessary preparations for the final stages of his plot; he looked at a holopad as he reached for his cup of affa smiling to himself. The holopad showed a quite clear list of all the stops of councilor Sparatus' trip and the relays he would take, for one of the very few times in the wizened turians existence he felt true joy; the end of the upstart was at hand.

**May 30, 2650 Councilor Sparatus' Flagship **_**Palaven's Voice,**_** Invictus system space.**

Councilor Sparatus gazed out into the great void that had captivated countless civilizations throughout the years. Even though a viewing port in a personal cabin was considered frivolous and pointless by the Hierarchy the benefits of being a councilor were quite obvious. He'd always enjoyed gazing out into that great expanse as his ship and escorts flashed onward, today however the view was mired by his wracking headaches due to a host of problems. First and foremost was that blasted Bruttianus, he had thought he had heard the last of the crazy old bird when he had put the loon up in Croton when Sparatus was still young to the Council. Now however the loon was back and as barking mad as ever, trying to circumvent the authority of the council that had put the old hawk in his gilded cage. Sparatus wanted nothing more than to see the man executed for war crimes but Bruttianus had to many friends; friends that could doom his political career. So instead he had the loon "honorably" discharged from the Navy, put up as the Primarch of an unimportant cluster, and left it at that. Sparatus thought the fiasco and embarrassment to the Hierarchy was done with though it seems Bruttianus had been a busy little pyjack, gathering resources and friends over the years; he was gearing up for revenge and Sparatus knew it.

Despite this Sparatus really couldn't do anything, Bruttianus was a cog of the Hierarchy, a dangerous insane cog but a cog none the same, to act on gut emotion and incomplete evidence would see him doomed. He merely had to hope that Bruttianus was stupid enough to leave enough evidence for Sparatus to see him arrested and killed, for now though the loon kept his talons clean and his fringe low; it infuriated Sparatus to no end.

The other slightly less annoying matter was his current trip, his current position on the council was tenuous at best, throughout his years of service he had been challenged many times for the position and the slightest act could send the masses over the edge seeking his impeachment. Mostly the people were angry about how bad the slaver and pirate raids had gotten over the years at the borders, even though he truly didn't control those fleets the masses seemed to blame everything that went wrong in their lives to him. So he had to grin and bear the accusations all the while going on pointless PR trips like this to keep his reputation up. His musings over his now pounding headache was cut short when the line to the bridge chimed on.

"Councilor we'll be arriving in Invictus within the next few hours", the Navigator informed Sparatus. Sparatus merely sent a message received signal and proceeded to trudge down to the elevator linking his private cabin to the rest of the vessel.

After several moments of waiting the elevator door hissed open and Sparatus was greeted to the wonderful sight of beeping consoles and blaring lights, he wanted nothing more than someone to put a pistol up to his head and have mercy on him. He was a Turian however and furthermore a Councilor, he must maintain a strong bearing at all time. Walking up to the CIC he assumed his customary spot and assumed his vigil over the bridge.

"Councilor", a sensor officer started hesitantly, "you may want to see this…"

**Dark space outside Invictus System, Bruttianus' armada.**

"My lord Sparatus has arrived". Bruttianus gave a wolfish grin and said but one word.

"Begin".

"Sir I'm counting 3 hundred, wait no 5 hundred contacts", the officer opened his mouth to say more but his mouth simply hung open his mandibles parted, "Councilor there are over 760 contacts; Turian vessels with only a few pirates and slavers.

Councilor Sparatus understood the officer's odd body language then that was a full 8th of the Turian armada! He opened his mouth to order a hailing of the fleet but was stopped when all consoles switched to a vid feed to what must be one of the ships in the opposing fleet. He looked down and immediately recognized his doom.

"Send a message to Invictus now!" Sparatus shrieked in fear as he saw the wizened visage of Bruttianus.

"Oh I don't think you'll be able to do that dear Sparatus", Bruttianus replied gleefully

"Explain this… blockade immediately Bruttianus!" Sparatus spat out now simply engulfed by his rage at the old loon.

"I think you know quite clearly Sparatus you merely still exist at this moment, because I couldn't help but gloat. Your communications are blocked and your fate is in my talons", Bruttianus paused his gaze hardening, "Know this boy, your death will bring about the true glory of the Hierarchy! Now farewell, may the Spirits forever spit upon your atomized remains". The feed cut and Sparatus simply slumped in his chair. He didn't respond when his crew asked him what to do, he didn't respond when the fleet surrounding his vessels readied the main guns and he couldn't respond when his entire fleet was wiped off the face of the galaxy.

* * *

Bruttianus was interrupted from watching the glorious death of his hated rival for the fifth time via recorded vid by a message from the armadas' second in command Rear Admiral Desolas Areterius, his protégée's older brother.

"My lord the Batarian slavers are requesting to speak with you", Desolas reported. 'So that's what all the annoying pings to communications were', Bruttianus sarcastically thought.

"Don't bother, destroy them all", He commanded dismissively.

Desolas looked shocked, "But sir we promised them payment and protection for this!"

"The council needs a scapegoat boy and unless you want to be the traitorous leader of upstart Turian deserters looking for revenge you will wipe the filth from the void!" Bruttianus commanded with a roar. Desolas looked furious but he knew that Bruttianus meant every word.

"As you command my lord", He managed to spit out barely containing any semblance of Turian discipline. Bruttianus just nodded and cut the connection. After thinking for a few seconds he sent a message back to Croton, to Saren.

_"All went well, we managed to kill the patrol, sending back insubordinate officer who had the gall to question a direct order and become furious. Sending him with several ships back to your command…destroy the other slaver patrol, do not hold back they must be repulsed and taught a lesson. Make sure fore mentioned officer is killed to prevent further insubordination he is a massive liability, this is your final test, don't fail me and you'll get the promotion to Commander like you always wanted". LB_

After making sure that if the message was miraculously intercepted no one would be able to make heads or tails but still obvious enough for Saren to understand he sent it to Croton.

"And so it begins", Bruttianus mused as he prepared for the next phases of his plot.

"…What do you mean Highcom can't send anything?!" Captain McHenery spat with uncouth rage. "I was just assaulted by a small patrol of unknowns who refused to even respond to hails and you bloody can't send anything!?"

**2650 June 3****rd****, 4****th**** R&D Fleet Aboard UNSC **_**to The future.**_

Grand Admiral Terrence Hood merely looked back at McHenery oddly looking apprehensive and depressed by what he said next.

"The covenant has launched the biggest offensive since the scare of '33, all fleets not defending Systems or Arcturus are putting them down hard, I am sorry Captain but they're all thousands of light-years away", Hood Said not unkindly but with a firm, "Don't raise your voice at me again", tone.

"Is it that bad?" McHenery suddenly asked truly worried.

Hood looked surprised at the question but simply said "No son it's not, but when they attacked you were already a day into slip space we had no way to contact you, and no way of assuming it would be a full assault. In any case after the news reached Arcturus Highcom and the Senate unanimously decided that we would counter attack with everything we had".

"So I must hold out then", McHenery stated looking off into some unknown distance pensively.

"Yes you will be relieved by the CDF of Shanxi, I should assume from how weak this race is you should be able to defend anything save a full scale invasion", Hood replied, "Son I understand, know that we are sending an entire wing from Arcturus, 300 vessels but it will take over a 2 weeks to reach you".

McHenery only sighed and nodded running a hand through his brown hair.

"I'll do the best I can Grand Admiral", McHenery stated. Hood nodded and his hologram flickered off the holopad in front of McHenery. Lee flickered to life on the Holopad taking Hood's place as he looked at Lee oddly calmly considering the situation.

"Sir the boarding parties have reported in; all hostiles are surrendering without a fight", Lee reported calmly. McHenery nodded, glad to have avoided more death

"Get them aboard the _To the Future's _brig", he commanded, as he yet again surveyed the drifting hulk that remained of the unknowns light cruiser. "Can you get into the ships mainframe yet?"

"Ah yes, well it seems that a shot may have destroyed the processing unit of the ship", Lee stated grumpily clearly unhappy he couldn't go over the likely hordes of new data, "However part of it survived, mostly translation software, it seems these people have quite a few languages; with the software as a canvas I should be add their languages to the translators. McHenery gave a slight flick of his wrist that Lee had come to learn of the years meant "Go do what you want, and leave me be".

Shortly afterward all 7 vessels shot off to link up with the hastily mobilizing Space Shanxi Defense Force. In 2565 with previous experiences with the Great War blitz and the Insurrection's hit and run tactics outer colonies needed to have better protection, thus the Colony Defense Force was created. The CDF would be composed entirely of ships dedicated to defense of a single colony, thus great expense was made to make their particular shields and armor the strongest in the UNSC. To completely maximize this CDF made all of their vessels completely grounded to their systems with no FTL capability, this allowed for all energy created by the nuclear reactors to go to shields and weapons. Essentially they were a deterrent; old Covenant would take great time to completely defeat the Defense fleet allowing the colony under attack to evacuate it's population to massive underground bunkers that were able withstand glassing. Mostly though it completely dissuaded Insurrection attacks, it would generally a 2:1 advantage to take down a Defense Fleet and the Insurrection simply didn't have those numbers. With the culmination of the CDF in 2573 almost all insurrection movement stopped, the UNSC finally had complete orbital dominance, and if they had that mounting a proper rebellion on a planet was all but unheard of. Add to the fact that most CDF fleets were specifically crewed with multi species to allow for a mutiny of any corrupt officer who sided with the Insurrection and the Insurrection simply couldn't gain any traction.

Now McHenery joined with the scrambling fleet of 1 Marathon Heavy Cruiser, 5 Paris Heavy Frigates, 1 old-Covenant Cruiser, 3 old-Covenant Frigates, and even a beat up old-Covenant Battle Cruiser. An attempt had been made over the last 50 years to standardize the Navy of the NSA by merging designing completely new ships; however the idea for the most part was dropped due to the astronomical costs and hadn't been started until the scare of '33. It had been a blitz on the border of the old covenant; three worlds had gone dark. The entire affair had proved to just be the old covenant desperately trying to flex its muscles to retain any semblance of order, and after the initial attack they were swamped by 3 massive NSA retaliation fleets numbering nearly 3,000 strong. After that the old covenant were pushed back losing 4 worlds to the NSA until it was decided that the covenant simply didn't have anything to attack back with. they had to defend their worlds and the 500 strong fleet was destroyed by the massive retaliation strike. Since the embarrassment of the awful problems officers had trying to coordinate the 2 completely separate ship designs the idea of a standardized fleet was reconsidered and put into motion it was taking quite an awful amount of time to even agree on how the ships should be built and so far only the Capital ships and the new dreadnought class were designed and put into development in the fortress worlds.

McHenery overlooked the glittering Seas of the over 1 billion population colony and prayed that what he had could defeat the unknowns. He then opened a com link to General Williams commander of the ground forces of the CDF of Shanxi.

"General Williams prepare all assets for invasion and put the colony on DEFCON 2 preparing to evacuate at any second, also I have a few guests that will be staying with you…"

**24 Hours later, Shanxi Relay Turian Subjugation Fleet.**

Lights flashed by, days, months and years. Saren saw his entire life stretched out before him. He knew now, at this moment he had to make a choice. Stand with the filthy and weak Council destined to be defeated, or stand with Bruttianus the Turian chosen to bring glory to the Hierarchy the man who told him to do the unthinkable; kill his only brother. He had to make a choice, and he knew only one would see him see a new year. So with tears flowing down his face Saren made his choice, Desolas must die for the glory of the Hierarchy. So when the fleet 430 warships passed through the relay it did so with Desolas' dreadnought at the helm.

"Captain!" came the shrill shriek that designated an Unggoy. "Captain, massive energy surge from the relay; they're coming back!" McHenery looked onward grimly, only a slight and short lived tremble designated the fear plaguing the man's mind.

"Bring up a vid feed from the probe we left there", He commanded without a moment's hesitation. The feed flickered to life to all holopads aboard the fleet, at first it only showed the massive "relay" giving off its blue aura, but soon the rings surrounding the dark energy began picking up immense speed and with the customary flash of blue ships started to fill the empty abyss surrounding the relay. It seemed to go on forever, at first only 3 ships jumped in; light cruiser weight vessels that were the flagships of the last fleet their black and silvery armor gleaming in the blue light. Then dozens of ships appeared, now frigates much smaller with wings branching off from the main superstructure of the ship with what appeared to be engines giving off an azure light. And finally the small 250 meter corvettes appeared this time in the hundreds. McHenery was mesmerized, he hadn't had much time to observe the ships last time before they opened fire, and he found himself captivated by the predator like vibe the ships seemed to give off. Like a massive hawk or eagle stretching forward to snatch its prey into its gaping maw.

"Sir, fleet count is complete", that same Unggoy reported, "They have 3 light cruisers, 140 frigates and 250 hundred corvettes, I'm also seeing what could either be troop transport carriers or naval carriers". The Unggoy kept a steady report, but the ever so slight nuances reported fear, and with good reason this was a pure and simple invasion fleet. McHenery closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself.

"Have all crew ready at battle stations, fighters and bombers ready to jump at a moment's notice. Lee link with all other AIs and prepare firing solutions as soon as they get in range, prioritize the flagships and frigates, the corvettes may be nimble but their guns won't do jack shit against CDF armor and shields", as McHenery gave the orders the alarms for the second time in such a short span blared to life. Lee appeared on the holopad, he was dressed for war and even appeared to have a cavalry saber sheathed to his side.

"Here to tell me the odds?" McHenery asked dryly but grimly.

"No sir I'm just reporting the translation suite is complete and we can communicate with these… Turians" Lee said.

"Well maybe we can at least find out why they're hell bent on concurring us." McHenery then turned in his chair to the comms officer. "As soon as they practical range of the DEWs I want you to hail that light cruiser there in the middle. Also tell all ships that all nonessential crew, scientists, Marines or ODSTs are to go to the colony and help in the defense". The comms officer saluted, those several thousand boots would be much more useful on the ground. McHenery while not a particularly religious man bent his head in spiritual reflection, might as well make peace now sooner rather than later.

**Turian Subjugation fleet Desolas' dreadnought **_**Indomitable**_**. **

The Turian fleet spun out of the relay out of the relay as always with hyper speed. Desolas sighed his mandibles twitching irritably; Saren told him of the circumstances of this invasion and suffice to say he was not amused. He was probably the oldest fashioned Turian left in Bruttianus' ranks probably only because he was Saren's older brother, and his honor felt betrayed at having to annihilate primitives, he'd much rather be helping forward the Hierarchy back in council space. He rubbed a hand through his fringe at that thought though, Bruttianus ordered him to Command the fleet alongside Saren and command he would, perhaps these primitives might even put up a fight worthy of his honor.

"All ships accounted for sir", a younger navigator told him.

"Good, move forward and prepare for battle", Desolas commanded in reply.

The fleet rocketed forward, Desolas leading the pack, with the 2 other dreadnoughts following closely, the Cruisers were forming a solid wall of metal, and Saren's wolfpacks bringing up the flanks and rear drifting forward in packs of 6. At about 100,000 kilometers from the primitives home world the sensor officer announced they were being hailed by the massive silver ship centered among the small defense fleet orbiting the planet.

"Put on screen", Declared Desolas, Saren had been very precise in what he wanted Desolas to say if the aliens contacted the fleet and while Desolas felt quite the fool at what he had to say he would follow the orders that likely came directly from Bruttianus. The holopad turned to the image of the inside of a bridge, a tall Asari like creature sat in a chair dressed in a white garb with several medals and bars adoring the shoulders and chest. The obvious military regalia were completed by what looked like a cloth half helmet depicting an eagle in flight grasping what was probably a representation of the alien's home world. The alien itself had a pale pinkish tan hue to its hide with an odd gathering of brown fur gathered around its head and above its eyes. After staring for a few seconds the alien spoke in what was obvious a commanding and resolute tone, this did not surprise Desolas it was an officer by the look of it, what _did _surprise Desolas was that what it said was in impeccable Turian.

"Turian fleet, you have fired and invaded sovereign NSA territory patrolled by the United Nations Space Command, you are here by ordered to withdraw your fleet at once or be fired upon", the alien finished with a commanding voice that demanded respect. Desolas snorted however, the alien just liked to talk it soon would be blown from the void, Desolas then said what Saren had ordered him to utter.

"You alien, your presence it a blight on the Spirits plane. The Spirits demand your destruction and we are their mortal embodiments!" Desolas finished feeling just a tad bit foolish. What happened next is not what he expected. The alien turned white for a split second and said nothing before his eyes narrowed and his face turned red in what Desolas assumed was extreme anger.

"So be it filth". The feed then cut and Desolas was left to scratch his fringe, he guessed the alien was just offended.

* * *

"…The Spirits demand your destruction and we are their mortal embodiment!" the Turian officer finished with a reverent tone. Every single human on the bridge froze and locked their eyes on the holopad in front of Captain McHenery. McHenery himself only looked in utter hatred and fear at the Turian. A century a millennium an eon it did not matter, humanity would remember what happened at Harvest and what wretched words were uttered. McHenery with unveiled loathing uttered.

"Fire the DEWs, wipe that middle ship from the void, I don't want a single atom to remain!" the crew muttered their ascent the humans disgusted at another xenophobic fanatic race and the former covenant races sheepishly going about their duties trying not to look any human in the eye.

At the brow of the _To the Future _a bright red light coalesced in a thin tube just above the MAC mounted on the brow. The light grew to extreme brightness until it launched out a light speed instantly spearing into the light cruiser at the front of the fleet. Annihilation wasn't a good enough definition, annihilation allowed for something to remain…nothing remained the ship simply ceased to be its drive core instantly overloading destroying the ship at the atomic level. The utter destruction seemed to captivate the Turian fleet for a few seconds, then they responded in turn their spinal mounted main guns glowing blue red before they fired en masse to the lead ships.

"All power to forward shields fleet wide, launch MACs and plasma torpedoes, archer pods on the entire starboard side. Launch all fighters and bombers focus on the larger ships!" Captain McHenery ordered and the battle ensued.

**AN Yeah I'm cruel for the cliffhanger but I want to make sure I get the Space and land battle done perfectly so I'd prefer to work with a clean slate. Again please review; particularly tell me if you hate the Council Turian subplot and if you can guess the Main antagonist. And with that I leave you until chapter four: The Razing of Shanxi. –JoetheHighlord.**


	5. The Battle of Lou Yang part 1

_The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our race's most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who fights only when he must—never for sport. ROBERT A. HEINLEIN _

**Chapter 4: The Battle for Lou Yang: part 1**

Space, the last and greatest frontier for any species, filled with glittering marvels, and hidden wonders. An entire universe ripe for the picking, it should have been a realm of peace and prosperity with more than enough room to encompass countless species but it was a universe filled with sentients. And those sentients were filled with hate, greed, anger, and rivalry destined to quarrel over things that should be given to all. And so the great peaceful sanctum of space was yet again torn apart by the fires of war in the space above a system, a world called Shanxi by 5 different species a world that should have been allowed peace.

The fires started small a red light beam launched from a single ship at light speed, the fire was all consuming however and the greed and hatred of sentients overrode all. The fire grew with the ships that had been inflicted the first blow, blue lights gathering at the brows of dozens of ships before being launched off into the void. But the first fleet held strong, glittering orange shields protecting them from the fires of war, but they would not hold forever. In response the first fleet rocketed forward, launching thousands of missiles a veritable wall of future fire and death, the second fleet tried to respond evading this way and that lasers blowing up missiles before they could reach the fleet, but there were too many. The wall of fire was too hot for dozens of the ships in the second fleet, and the blue shields held for but an instant before they were gone fires dotting the many hulls of the ships spreading death and destruction. 3 dozen ships the Turians called cruisers and frigates no longer existed, consumed by great explosions of missiles and the blue light of plasma, the ships were now but drifting hulks of rapidly cooling metal. The Turians pride would not be undone this day however.

The Turians returned fire, torpedoes and main guns flashing in the abyss of space, they were meticulous in their nature like a great many ants teaming up to destroy a massive predator. This blue fire spread across the first fleet as its great orange barriers finally shattered and opened the ships for attack. The armor looked like it might hold strong but the strain was too great and with a great heaving 5 ships were destroyed hundreds of small holes dotting the hulls rapidly venting atmosphere. This is when the small ships met, 3 thousand strong well-made fighters and bombers of the first fleet; they were met by over ten thousand of the second fleet. The numbers proved too great and although their fires took thousands down they soon were reduced to rubble. Red light arched from all ships from the first fleet then, a dramatic act of defiance, they deliberately aimed where their fire would pierce multiple ships and of the 6 arches of light that fired 18 ships went down, ships simply stopping to exist as their drive cores overloaded at the immense energy that was fired. The turians rage was impotent however and the return fire destroyed but one ship, a massive 5 kilometer bulbous blue white ship that jumped forward at great sub light speeds to appear above the two remaining ships the Turians called dreadnaughts. The fires of war were yet again blue as plasma projectors were fired the blue light streaking down and to the sides razing the 2 ships splitting them in two down the middle. The Turians in their fury returned fire with everything they had, but not before the plasma turrets and torpedoes could have their vengeance all and all when the fire finally stopped 20 more Turian ships were rendered impotent with all personnel vented to space and the ships drifting melted metal fused together. The great blue white ship was forever crippled its hull riddled with gaping holes left there by Turian guns, as the fire stopped the Turians hesitantly sent boarding parties, the captain allowed every boarder to arrive on the ship then overloaded the engines and annihilating everything in a massive burst of heat and energy. The Turians were shocked but now angry, they aligned themselves to the seven remaining vessels in orbit who had kept themselves from the fight; they would not be spared the Turian's anger.

**4****th**** R&D fleet **_**To the Future **_**orbiting above Shanxi. **

Tears stroked down the side of Captain Marcus McHenery's face unabated; the entire CDF of Shanxi was dead, good men and women just doing their jobs. It didn't matter if they were Human, Sangheili, Unggoy or Mgalekgolo they had died defending their homes in the hope that their sacrifice would save countless more. And all of this death and destruction because yet again another fanatical race needs to wipe humanity and her allies from existence; McHenery felt sick his rage unfocused and feral. He looked at the holopad in front of him and viewed that the shocked remnants of the Turian invasion fleet was coming his way; his ships were good much more nimble than the CDF fleet, but their shields and armor would be fried in a prolonged fight; there were simply too many guns against them. His dark musings of his eminent death were interrupted by the thumping clacking sound of his XO's San Vandas' hoofs running up to his chair. McHenery turned around to look the tall Sangheili in the eyes.

"Get ready for a slipspace jump San; we're going to take as many of those bastards with us as we can!" McHenery roared allowing his raging emotions to get the better of him. The Sangheili looked slightly surprised, his mandibles parted slightly, but he regained his composure quickly enough to respond.

"Exactly my idea Sir, but I'm afraid you won't be able to take part in our glorious retribution", San replied in his deep tone.

"Good I want you to- wait what did you say?" McHenery asked clearly in confusion. San merely waved his hand to the Sangheili officers on the bridge and they rounded up every single Human and brought them over to the doors.

"What is this mutiny?!"McHenery roared.

"No we will go down with the ship, a glorious last stand that will make the ancestors proud", San began in a reverent but firm voice, "But it will be one that you Humans will have to make without us". The color drained from McHenery's face at that; he loved his crew all of them species was no barrier to him.

"No that's not an option we go together as a crew!" McHenery urged with acquiesces from the Humans surrounding him. San merely shook his head.

"Humans have lost enough to the fires of war, we must atone for our forbearers sins; we must carry the weight so you don't have to", San merely intoned finality clear in his voice.

"I order you then to stand down; we go together!" McHenery demanded.

"With respect Sir", San stated and then preceded to knock McHenery to the ground and cuff his hands together. He then tossed the key to a human officer standing nearby and pushed McHenery into the arms of two other humans. He then ushered the humans to the escape pods, close to the bridge before tossing to another human a glittering silver chip.

"This ship's construct is Human made; it also deserves to be spared death", San said then walked away the door shutting and sealing behind him. The officers seeing they had no choice boarded the escape pods and after a few brief seconds rocketed away from the ship. As they gazed out the rear viewing port they saw this scene repeated itself across the entire fleet, save 2 frigates that followed the pods as the shot towards Shanxi. McHenery was then released from his bonds; he sat there numbly taking in the scene.

He saw as the blue black portal opened in front of the 5 remaining ships, ships that rocketed into them just as the blue fire of the enemy streaked into their place.

**UNSC Dreadnaught **_**To the Future**_

San Vandas felt his heart echo in his chest. He felt them like he felt the whir of the engines of a fighter, he felt fear. But he also felt anger and hope, anger at these unworthy Cretans who would dare desecrate the peace of this vibrant world, and hope that his actions would save the lives of the millions of civilians on Shanxi and hope that his sacrifice may finally begin to atone for the sins of his ancestors. He channeled his anger and his hope now into this last defining moment of his short life to take vengeance against those who would kill innocents and shackle the weak.

"I want all weapons to fire when we arrive, everything must be emptied or recharging when they return fire or the Ancestors will be shamed upon you all", San threatened the crew, they wisely made sure his desire was met.

The portal then appeared ripping open to spit them out back into real space in the heart of the shell shocked remnants of the aliens' fleet. His ships were the hand of the Ancestors, finally making up for their sins. The guns were their hope for a brighter future and did that future shine with fury. MAC shots, plasma, missiles, DEWs, Shivas it did not matter all was fired from the vengeful five ships. San at that point saw only fire, death and destruction for 30 seconds his ships shuddered under the sheer amount of firepower being poured from their maws. Then the fires cleared he saw uncountable amount of smoking melted hulks and floating dead Aliens it brought him satisfaction. He dimly was aware that the rest of the Alien fleet was taking aim, he didn't notice the shields go down none of his crew did. His crew only bent their heads in acceptance, and rammed the nearest ship in one last defiant act. He saw a bright white light and knew no more.

* * *

Saren could only gasp at the destruction he was witnessing and weep, not out of the countless Turians live that were lost but the sheer power and hopelessness his fleet had at the 18 ships of the "primitives" fleet. So he sat there mandibles parted eyes glazed as he watched the parting grace of his enemies and the invariable proof that they had FTL, a strange and unknown FTL method but FTL all the same. His enemies were not primitive. He now knew he had only one hope, beg that the sheer power of these ships designated a home world and that once captured the Aliens will would be snapped and forced into surrender, it was a hollow hope.

"Commander I have the final losses", Sidonis informed him.

"How much", Saren asked numbly, the flaming derelict ships were too many to count.

"38 frigates all lost, 67 cruisers all lost, and all 3 dreadnaughts 2 managed to launch escape pods but your brother's was destroyed with all crew lost", Sidonis replied with a haunted tone.

Saren didn't know what to say, he had lost almost an entire 4th of his fleet to these aliens, and almost half of the remaining ships were reporting damage of some sort, mostly superficial but still damage.

"Why were so many more cruisers destroyed than frigates? Should it have not been the other way around?" Saren managed to croak out.

"The aliens deliberately targeted our larger ships, the shields and armor may as well have been frigate weight for all the good it did them".

"Spirits!" Was all Saren had to say. He looked over the remaining fleet, all of the ground and atmosphere fighters were unharmed; the invasion would still go unhindered.

"Begin the invasion; I want all Capital class cities in our talons by week's end!" Saren snarled working past his horror and finding his anger like Bruttianus taught him. Sidonis looked surprised the Invasion would continue right away, but unlike usually he acted like a proper Turian and nodded striding off to issue the orders to the drop ships. Saren smoldered as he considered the green vibrant planet and glittering seas. They would burn.

**Shanxi's' Capital Lou Yang, General Williams CDF command post**

The bunkers built under all large urban areas in NSA planets were a byproduct of the Great War. The billions of lives lost to glassing demanded a way to defend civilians. problem was in typical glassing there was nowhere you could run to escape the massive plasma beams. Then one civilian who had witnessed a glassing while escaping on a UNSC rescue fleet came up with a simple yet effective solution; if you can't run why don't you just dig down? While glassing did cause extensive surface and ecological damage to planets after about a mile down the only issue occurred is slight heat increase. Therefore with the CDF fleets buying time for civilians to evacuate, they were safe from glassing and the Covenant until UNSC rescue parties arrived to literally dig them out. The bunkers themselves were massive and Spartan in design built to hold as many people as possible, while sustaining them and providing adequate resources for a prolonged wait. As such the bunkers were literally massive greenhouses followed by living pods, followed by warehouses and finally completed with massive nuclear generators that could theoretically power the bunker for years. All in all the experience was not exactly a pleasant one. And General Williams of the CDF and UNSC forces of Shanxi was currently occupying one of the Command posts in the titanium and concrete nightmare.

"Will someone for the name of all that is holy on this place that is not Earth get me some damned coffee?!" Williams roared in his typical gruff but kindly attitude. An aide quickly ran up to him holding an entire pot of the steaming elixir along with several large mugs.

"Thank the entire damned dirty prophets' girl; I thought we had run out for a second" Williams grunted out after taking a sip.

"Sir the rest of Shanxi high command has arrived, do you want them to be shown in?" the aide asked. Williams merely waves his hand yes, the rest of his consciousness taken up by the oh so wonderful drink in his other hand. At that the aide ran off and only a few seconds later a small stream of Humans Sangheili, Unggoy and Mgalekgolo filled the room sitting in their specifically designed seats.

"Well boys it seems we have our work cut out for us today", Williams stats after a brief survey of the room.

"We take offense to that", shouted back a conglomeration of females of all species lumped together in the middle of the room. Williams only nods his mood suddenly changing as he focused on the com unit in his ear. His eyes grew dark and misty for but an instant.

"It would seem, that the situation has changed", He began with a foreboding air, "The entire CDF naval fleet is gone and all but 2 frigates of the 4th R&D have been destroyed. The enemy has begun the invasion as we speak; drop ships entering the atmosphere above the major cities, the fly boys will do all they can to thin their numbers but it looks like this will be one hell of a slug fest". The room took on a grim tone; they knew well the horror that was urban warfare.

"As such I have decided to move the precious cargo to the two remaining warships in Shanxi space; also I am initiating Cole protocol. Now then get to your respective posts and await further orders and by all means defend to the last for they will show you no mercy", the once jovial Williams ordered in hushed tones. The entire room stood at this and saluted the once joking general. Williams then moved to look at the holotable showing Lou Yang above him preparing defenses, he begged whatever immortal denizens that may have been watching the plight the strength to hold out for two weeks, he didn't think he had it in him to survive without coffee. But he'd get to see how these 'Turians' did with several surprises shoved up whatever constituted an anus in their biology, that may make up this entire fiasco.

**Field Marshal Romulus' Troop Carrier **_**Spirits' Arm **_**2 hours earlier **

Field Marshal Romulus was the epitome in a Turian officer that Bruttianus strived for. Professional, brave, skilled and utterly ruthless towards his enemies he was part of a new breed in Hierarchy leadership. He would take orders that would leave other officers gaping like a Quarian out of a suit, and commit atrocities that would leave others emotionally scared. To top it off he personally knew and liked no less than 6 captains that had been killed in the atrocity that was the previous naval battle, suffice to say he was itching for revenge. The young Turian surveyed the meeting, making sure all high ranking officers taking part in the invasion were here nodding to his satisfaction he stood and prepared to deliver his battle plan.

"Alright, we're going to make this quick and simple, by the books I don't want to see any heroics on the battlefield ok?" Romulus began glad to see that the officers were merely watching him with rapt attention seeming not to care about the massive age difference. "Commodore Saren wants this capital city to fall by week's end and by the Spirits we'll do it in half that time! Preliminary scans of the system show a lack of ground to air defenses in several clearings and grasslands surrounding the capital city here, here and here", at this a the holotable switched to a 3d representation of the city and the surrounding countryside parts of it highlighted in green others in red. "These green zones seem to be the weak spot in the enemies defenses while the red zones are the most heavily defended, it should be a fairly standard invasion; ground troops supplemented by light armor create a 'beachhead' followed by the rest of the infantry, armor and gunships. After all has landed we will create and launch a three pronged assault on the city staying tight to these green zones as much as possible and meeting up in this plaza here", he then pointed to a massive opening in the heart of the city. "At this point we'll have determined their HQ and proceed to sack the place, hopefully being split in three separate pieces the alien forces will lose cohesion and be forced to either surrender or abandon the city". The generals looked at the plan appraisingly although it looked like several were apprehensive towards it.

"This entire operation seems to bank on the idea that we'll be fighting very light air and armor resistance, and I for one find that these "green zones" are a little too convenient for comfort; seems to me like it is a massive trap", a Major General stated looking at the mentioned green zones eerily. Romulus had already considered that and the scans had assured him of only a light armor depot and small airway for fighters.

"The scans have already designated enemy strong points", he gestures to the map and purple areas now appear dotting the city, "These are the only armor and air launching area within effective range of the battle, along with several AA batteries they should be dealt with by a rather short orbital bombardment".

"I still don't like, I mean who in their right mind would leave those batteries and launch facilities so unguarded and exposed?" The same General questioned. Romulus did agree it seemed at tad bit foolish, but what could you expect from uncivilized beings that used Nuclear weapons so near orbit and for that matter beings that would willingly ram ships, a more unorthodox tactic had never been known, not even by Bruttianus.

"What can you expect from such undisciplined beings? They have probably never faced a true land war before, relying on the power of their navy, either that or they arrogantly assumed this planet would never be attacked", at his words the General finally seemed to be won over and nodded his agreement. 'Good', thought Romulus, 'no division in the ranks we must appear united for the troop's morale for such a plan'.

"Well then Turians if we don't have any more questions report to your landing craft and prepare for the invasion, the bombardment will begin in exactly 2 standard hours I want all craft to descend into the atmosphere the moment the last gun stops firing!" Romulus said with conviction. The officers stood saluted and filed back to the hanger. Romulus sat their looking at the city's map wondering if his alien counterpart was doing the same; if he was he would learn the true might of the Hierarchy. Romulus would have vengeance for the dead.

* * *

2 standard hours later the remnants of the Turian fleet formed up and aligned themselves with the planet creating perfect firing arches. The void was silent for but a few moments the light of the system's star glittering off the Turian ships, then the fires began anew. The bombardment was purely tactical, low powered kinetic shots; it would not do to appear like a butcher to the galaxy. The shots rocketed from the Turian ships descending into the atmosphere and destroying what they assumed were the only defenses for Lou Yang. It was an awesome sight to behold, the might and precision of the bombardment, entire wings of ships firing at once at such a small spot of land. All too soon in the Turians' minds the firing stopped and the proud ships were silent, then like ghosts those that were kept in the rear of the formation, the transports, glided forward to descend into the atmosphere. The battle for Lou Yang had begun.

**Lou Yang bunker General Williams' command post**

"Sir the bombardment has stopped all enemy craft guns silent and what is obviously landing craft descending into the atmosphere!"

"Good prepare to go on the offensive as soon as soon as the enemy heavy armor lands", the holo of his field coordinator saluted and flickered off to issue his orders to the other officers. Williams then took a moment to survey the map of Lou Yang, the bombardment had gone almost exactly as he had planned. The AA batteries that they took out were no more than a dozen very weak old models left out as a decoy and staging area for his armor only contained a couple of ancient scorpions, wraiths, and one incredibly beat up Elephant crawler. The airfield on the other hand was mostly real but there wasn't much he could do about that than evacuate all ordinance and crew leaving the few craft that were there to be destroyed. The Turians thought they had crippled Lou Yang, in reality she was strong as ever literally hundreds of AA batteries prepared to swat craft out of the sky, a dozen armor depots and no less than half a dozen hidden vertical runways for the fighters and bombers. That wasn't even taking account of all of Lou Yang's infantry defenses. Admittedly they were spread out and incredibly outnumbered by these Turians but if there was one thing Williams knew is that urban warfare didn't go to numbers or who had the biggest stick. It went to who was able to surprise the crap out of the enemy the most causing a dozen small interruptions before falling back to another ambush point and slowly eating away at the enemy's strength. It was a long drawn out plan and there were no guarantees they would win, but right now Williams needed time and his foolish counterpart in the Turian's armada was practically eating the trail of breadcrumbs Williams had laid.

He watched as the Turians descended to the predetermined zones, thinking they were safe; Williams allowed that idea for now keep things going smoothly for a while and arrogance would rear its ugly head, the Turians would make a mistake. Williams tapped the keys of the holotable keying into all his armor and militia units he had surrounding the kill zones their heat signatures hidden by ONI stealth equipment and visually hidden by simple foliage camouflage.

"Prepare for the ambush on my mark give our guests a proper welcome, we don't want them to feel too left out", Williams chuckled out, shocked at how tactless theses turians were literally charging ahead into what was obviously a trap. Entire regiments charging ahead blindly not even bothering to send ground or air scouts, it seems they were very confident in their equipment; time to prove them wrong.

* * *

Captain Maras Kresharak of the Colonial militia was a new age Sangheili, a frontline soldier who had finally mastered the subtle art the humans called "shock and awe" and "hitting them with their pants down". Whatever they called it she couldn't deny its effectiveness many an invading soldier of the old covenant had learned the craftiness of humans, and some she was sure were utterly terrified to partake in a land invasion; why can't we blast them from atmosphere where they can't hide and sneak? Now after years of change Sangheili who usually thought such tactics were for cowards surrounded her as she prepared to demolish the arrogant alien bastards in front of her. They would learn quickly the lessons the covenant learned or they would die.

"This is Williams to all militia and armor divisions in the corridors take, take, take. Blow the bastards to the sky", voiced the disembodied voice of Williams to her earpiece. Manipulating her jaws in the approximation of a Sangheili grin she signaled for the dozens of militia around her to creep over the ridge they were hiding under. As she reached the top of the ridge and looked down she was treated firsthand to the pride of the Citadel that was the Turian war machine. She had to admit these Turians were professional, the old covenant would have gladly accepted them into its ranks. The Turians marched with an air of professionalism and confidence their APCs, tanks and infantry forming up in long glittering columns slowly inching from their beachhead a ways back all the way to the city in perfect unison. It was almost a shame to break up the show, almost.

Little did the Turians know they were walking into a minefield, literally. The defense of the city had been meticulously planned by Williams and several other officers the moment the 4th R&D arrived with the horrifying news. This minefield was different than most relying on remote detonation as opposed to activation from weight. They were designed for ambushes, to be activated the moment the juiciest of targets were under them. And in her mind the small tanks the Turians called heavy armor were definitely the juiciest target. Pulling out a small silvery mirror she reflected the suns light and was pleased to see in front and all around her the same small flashes of light, she swore she could even see the armor of several badly hidden Wraith II light tanks. A good thing the Turians didn't bother to look to the side or up too often. Seeing the go ahead sign all around her she pulled a thin tube from her pack flipping a cap up and pressing a claw into the red button. All hell proceeded to break loose. As the great explosions of the mines went off fire, dirt, armor, and bodies all flew into the air at ridiculous speeds, not a single formation was spared as the mines went off in all directions the once orderly and professional Turians fell into chaos as droves of them were being eviscerated all around them. Finally the ground stopped its shaking and the smoke began to clear, she was proud of the Turians they had managed amid all the chaos to retain some semblance of order and form back up the moment the explosions halted. Now however they were all looking at their feet and forward towards the city; unfortunately that's not where the danger was.

Stepping up she pulled a two plasma rifles from her back and motioned for her comrades to do the same letting loose a tremendous roar all around the Turians the militia surged from the forests and other such hiding spots, plasma, lasers and bullets flying into the unprepared Turian formations. Rockets and fuel rods slammed into the few remaining armored vehicles causing small explosions and further forcing the enemy apart. Roaring Maras a short way to a pre dug ditch just under the hills summit plasma rifles blasting away, every short burst melting into the armor of a Turian in front of her. The scene repeated itself hundreds of times across the three corridors the Turians had willingly walked themselves into. The Turians would not be daunted however and despite how awfully positioned they were they returned fire and took cover where they could among the smoking hulks of the armor. Maras noticed that the shields of her enemies only seemed to be equipped on a select few individuals, specialists and officers most likely, but more strangely than that the shields only responded to the kinetic weapons that the humans seemed to love, plasma and DEWs went straight through like the shield didn't even exist and melted armor like butter.

The turians seemed to think that they would be standing in their hills all day however as they didn't bother to make any suppression fire and only shot to kill, luckily their weapons were fairly ineffective to the personal shields of the soldiers, even the much lower grade colonial shields could stand up fairly well. Emphasis on fairly though, as she was forced down with the warning blare of depleted shields a couple of fellow militia were down on the ground around her as well; they wouldn't be getting back up. Seeing that the Turians were recovering from the initial shock and pouring in reinforcements from their base camp Maras decided to play her next hand.

"First second and third companies forward, fifth and six provide covering fire and any Unggoy I have no doubt of your bravery but unfortunately you will get yourselves killed if you charge", She roared and commanded. Pulling up plasma and hard light bayonets (swords and staves were left for the experts) the named companies and species charged down the hill supplemented by several light Wraiths and Mgalekgolo the company charged down the hill quickly copied by every other militia regiment seeing the good tactics in such a charge. Maras grinned as her shields protected her from the first few blasts and waded straight into the Turian line. The Turians didn't seem to know how to react to such a charge, desperately overcharging their weapons as they tried to stem the tide, it didn't work. In fact it didn't seem like the Turians had any melee weapons at all; they had natural talons by the look of it but that wouldn't do jack shit against even the lightest armor. Maras smiled this would be a "cakewalk" or so the humans called it. She wondered what pastries had to do with this.

* * *

Specialist Cornelius Teranus was terrified. He had been assured by his COs that this would be a textbook invasion; wipe out any naval presence, apply copious amounts of bombardment, and finally walk into to take the capital and planet in one massive blitz. The first two had gone slightly to plan, but this, this wasn't even in the unorthodox section of the textbook. Come on artillery that came from the ground that just wasn't fair and borderline cowardly! Then he found out the regiment, no the ENTIRE army was completely surrounded and boxed in. Bullets, plasma and what could only be described as laser bolts flashing down from hills and forests into the disorganized and already shocked Turian army had the effect of doing the unthinkable: scattering and causing chaos in a TURIAN army. That just didn't happen it was against the rules of the known galaxy. But then again they weren't in any part of the known galaxy he mused as he witnessed the unfamiliar forms of the aliens firing down into the columns. That was another thing, from what he could see there was not one species here but 4! Could that mean a collective government like the Citadel? Cornelius could only shudder at that ramification.

And then there was this charge, he had been sent here to counter any potential biotics among the enemy, which there weren't thank the spirits, he could only imagine what one of those massive aliens covered in blue armor would be able to do with biotics. He was barely able to keep enough strength to keep a barrier about him after the plasma from the artillery from the ground splashed all over him. He was able to throw a singularity here or there but his strength was diminishing quickly and once his biotics were gone there would be no way to fight these aliens in melee. To accentuate that point one of the masculine Asari creatures came charging at him with a black metal blade, after ramming the blade through several Turians of course. Drawing on his depleted reserves Cornelius deflected the first few blows with his barrier and used biotics to enhance his agility to avoid the rest, finally the alien paused for a split second enough for Cornelius to throw a warp draining the alien's shields then ripping him apart to a bloody pulp. This small victory was only a small comfort to the weary biotic as he surveyed the rest of the field; Turians were being dropped left and right having no way to decisively defend themselves and the small pockets of Turian resistance that only existed because of biotics were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

Cornelius paused to rest against the steaming hulk of a gutted APC, he was interrupted however when he saw one of the massive multiple jawed species come rushing towards him, this one seemed different however a more hourglass figure and smaller and more compact over all, probably a female. Not that it really mattered as the being, which he decided should be called split lips, was charging him with a glittering pointed contained plasma blade situated at the end of her gun. He mentally prepared himself and cringed when he realized he had very little strength left this may be the end. He shrugged and charged anyway, what better way to go out for a Turian?

* * *

Maras paused in the battle pleased at its current course, the only slight snag were those Turians that for all intents and purposes were using magic. She supposed it really didn't matter there were only a few of those and while they did do massive amount of damage put enough holes in them or stab them a few times with a bayonet and they died all the same. Easy enough to say in her head, but now she had to go and fight one of the bloody magicians and capture them alive, not a comforting prospect. Luck however seemed to be on her side as she viewed one of the buggers themselves separated from the rest of the rapidly dying resistance seemingly exhausted as it leaned against a blackened APC trying to regain its breath. Maras charged then seeing that she probably won't be getting another such opportunity any time soon. Her legs carried her as fast as possible hoping to close the distance before the bugger noticed her and sent one of its nasty glowing blue tricks her way. Of course she had no luck as the Turian did notice her and sent an orb her way, luckily the orb seemed to be weaker than the rest she had witnessed and instead of tearing her to pieces it only broke her shields and mildly dented her armor. Grinning she resumed her charge dodging another even weaker looking orb as she reached him, thrusting forward hoping to end this quickly she was surprised when the Turian only twirled away launching another blast way and pulling a pistol from its hip. Good, this one was tenacious.

Launching herself towards him she slashed her bayonet in a swift arch, shoulder to hip the purposely underpowered blade only met a glowing purple shield and left her badly extended. Doing the only thing she could she threw her gun at the alien buying her enough time to circle around and activate the plasma dagger at her waist, at low levels of course. Twisting forward she kicked with all her might and to her satisfaction noted the purple barrier shatter the Turian was then launched several meters forward at the feet of dead human. He stood standing shaking his head, probably to clear the dizziness; he then looked forward and hastily snatched a black curved sword at the human's hand. A katana she think the humans called it. Grinning even more she pulled a another plasma dagger into her second hand, she didn't have any true faith that she would be strained in a melee fight but the Turians had surprised her before maybe they could do it again. She then rushed the Turian hoping to close the distance to negate the weapons superior reach, twirling forward she launched a dizzying array of moves designed to confuse an opponent and prevent them from launching an effective offense not outright killing them. She was then glad she had activated the second plasma dagger; the Turian managed to pick off every single one of her attacks as if she was moving in slow motion. Growling Maras redoubled her efforts now making every swipe and slash a kill move; if she hadn't deliberately lowered the weapons power output. The Turian was good she'll give him that he managed to hold his own even against this and launch a couple shaky swings himself. Seeking to end this game quickly Maras noted the Turian was backpedaling right into a small hole created by a mine. Putting all her strength into one last forward slash she forced the Turian forward and caused him to fall unceremoniously straight into the hole.

Maras jumped in right after him slamming the hilts of her daggers into the sides of his head, knocking him out cold. Smiling at the proper challenge for once, she reached into her pack for a pair of energy cuffs and hastily latched them on before hoisting the male over her shoulder and bounding out of the hole, she also snatched the Katana as she leapt out seeing that the blades smooth surface had not been marred once during the fight. She would do the dead owner an honor by continuing to fight the enemy with such a worthy blade.

As she walked out she noted that the fight was winding down, here or there the crackle and popping of a gun could be heard, and the thunderous roar of a short lived explosion. Mostly though, the only sounds left were the moans of the dying, and the mournful tone of a wind working its way through the blackened valley. Maras sighed, it was all such a waste and she had to take part of it. Snapping herself out of her reprieve she put a claw to her ear activating her direct line to General Williams Command post.

"This is Captain Maras Kresharak of the 501st militia regiment, I have the precious blue cargo I repeat I have the precious blue cargo", Maras reported. She heard only a few short moments of static then a deep human male voice sounded through the device.

"Captain Maras, this is General Williams you are here by ordered to pull out right away, get the militia out of there. Furthermore you are to bring the precious blue cargo straight to the Command bunker", Williams commanded.

"Yes sir!"

"Good Williams out", Came the terse reply and the line cut dead. Nodding in satisfaction she noticed that the sounds of battle had finally died down leaving a sudden harsh absence of noise as the sun began its slow descent to the horizon. It seemed the Turians had decided to cut their losses and ordered a full retreat back to the landing zones the only place where they had managed to push back the militia. Once again keying into the battle net intercom she ordered all her remaining militia forces to pull back to the slightly diminished city skyline. The NSA had struck the first mighty blow but Maras knew the enemy would be more cautious and more forceful in the future; they were not fools. To tell the truth Maras feared for the future, she did not know if her home could hold.

**A/N Well I have to admit that was awesome to write. And no don't worry, that's not the end of the battle for Lou Yang I just want to split it up into more manageable pieces. By the way please tell me what you thought of the naval battle at the start of the chapter I'm experimenting with different styles of writing and I want to know what works and what doesn't. If you guys all hate it I promise I'll never write one like that again. In any case please review and I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I liked writing it. Until then JoetheHighlord out.**


	6. The Battle of Lou Yang part 2

_"Though I ask my brothers now to abandon their rituals, I do not ask that they abandon the Creed. THIS is what makes us Assassins. Not the removal of a finger. Not a false promise of paradise. Not the prohibition of poison. Our duty is to the people, not to custom."_

―_Altaïr's Codex_

**The Battle for Lou Yang: Part II**

**Turian Armada Orbiting Shanxi, Field Marshall Romulus' troop carrier **_**Spirits' Arm**_

Marshall Romulus was angry; no raging would be a better description. As the news of the abysmal battle floated up to the armada he got progressively angrier, culminating in his current state of near hysteria as he stalked back and forth across the bridge of his troop carrier. He was flabbergasted at the tactics these aliens, no, these BARBARIANS used. Artillery from the ground, ambushes and finally a spirits forsaken melee rush of the likes that haven't even been seen by the disgusting Krogan berserkers! It made him want to tear the scales covering his fringe one by one till he could forget about how awfully his army was getting trounced. Above all the Commodore Saren was getting anxious for a report and while Romulus _technically _shouldn't be afraid because he _technically _outranked the hotheaded bastard it was a well-established fact that Navy out ranked land, pure and simple. So it was with an anxious air he finally stopped wearing a rut into the cool metal that composed the floor of the bridge, and made his way to a meeting with his generals currently on the aliens' planet. That of course was another matter entirely; 4 completely different species fighting side by side suggested a collective government, a collective government suggested age of these species, and age of the species suggested great power and authority. That meant this was most likely a minor colony and a fleet was en route to wipe what remained of the armada from orbit; Romulus wanted the invasion to be over as soon as possible.

So engrossed was he in his thoughts he failed to respond to three separate salutes, leaving the Turians to stand there awkwardly pressed against the wall of a corridor until Romulus passed from sight, Romulus even managed to miss the door to the debriefing room , stomping straight up to where the corridor ended. Growling at himself for becoming so unsettled by barbarians he corrected his movements and made his way into the dimly lit room seating his well-muscled bulk in a rather well upholstered chair for a military vessel. He didn't have much time to relax in the comfortable position before the holopad in front of him sprang to life, the bodies of the three generals portrayed in the grainy blue. After saluting and greeting the officers Romulus was already ready to end this meeting and to drink all of the alcohol in sight.

"Well what do you have for me?" he asked bluntly. The generals looked slightly agitated at this looking around in their own environments for several moments before the eldest decided to respond.

"After the xenos launched their ambushes and our lines were overrun we pulled back all assets to the landing zones, we tried to counter attack but it was to no avail; our soldiers were already in the middle of the close combat and charging any further assets forward would be suicide", the General reported calmly, "Furthermore I have made the executive decision to order a full retreat of all forces back to the armada". Romulus raised his brow at this, his earlier anger and irritation returning in full swing at the Turian before him.

"Why in the name of the Spirits would you do that?!" Romulus howled instantly descending into a red haze. "By all reports the aliens have all but retreated to the city, if you were to advance with all your forces you could have taken those valleys!" The elder general wasn't perturbed by Romulus' outburst; in the contrary he kept a cool but firm manner as if he was explaining something to a child.

"Yes I agree; we could have taken those valleys if all forces were committed", the elder began at first soothing Romulus' anger, "But, if we did if we sent all forces into those death traps think of the losses, tens of thousands of dead Turians just serving the Hierarchy dead for what? A couple of blackened valleys would be gained, all that would lead to the biggest death trap of the century!" Now Romulus was angry, his pride shattered and his judgment clouded, to him he only saw the genius of his plan and the foolishness of the enemy and his officers.

"No, no, no and NO!" Romulus shouted gathering his shattered pride about him. "You WILL continue the invasion as I see fit and will immediately press those corridors and capture that Spirits' forsaken city!" Romulus accentuated his point by slamming his clenched talons on the arm of his chair.

"I will return to the Armada with all forces and personally question your ability to lead this invasion with Bruttianus himself!" the elder growled in response.

"You will be court martialed and executed for treason against the New Hierarchy!"

There was but one soft nearly inaudible reply, "So be it". The elder's imaged flickered and disappeared leaving an uneasy silence among the three remaining Turians. Finally, after several moments one of the other generals piped up.

"I for one _sir _am siding with Kydonos, this world is a death trap and we should do well to leave it", the general informed Romulus, he noted dully that it was the same Turian who questioned the corridors during the first debriefing. Before Romulus could say anything in reply he too cut the connection and vanished from sight. Nearly spitting with rage Romulus turned on the only Turian left, the one who had apparently followed Romulus' orders to the letter and was in the process of losing over 60% of his forces.

"Gaius you are in full command of all ground forces effective immediately. You will stop the withdraw from the planet and pursue complete destruction of all alien resistance. Congratulations General, do not fail me", Romulus stated with acid blatant in his voice. The middle aged Turian snapped a shaking salute in response and with shaking talons cut the connection. The holopad switched back to an orbital view of the capital city and the area surrounding it. Romulus saw that while on mass withdraw had ceased and been reversed large chunks from the two insubordinate generals forces were still retreating. Romulus grabbed the nearest glass of ice brandy and shattered it against a wall; he immediately regretted this action.

**Lou Yang Bunker, Command Post**

General Williams was roaring with laughter the deep rich tone reverberating throughout the concrete and titanium construct of the bunker. His AIs had recently hacked the aliens' communications (one of the few things that could be hacked). Apparently he had hit the gold mine with the transmission that was currently playing; the entire Turian high command. However, the best part of the hack had to be witnessing the current schism within the command, he almost wanted to go up and shake the appendage of whoever put that ass of a field marshal in command; it was going to make his job 10 times easier. Still he supposed that the two generals that were wise enough to escape the death trap might be a problem; they could be put in the command of the invasion. While it would be good to have the aliens completely pushed off Shanxi it would only be a matter of time before they landed again and Williams preferred to have them in their current position. That is to have them by the balls, or whatever comprises their reproductive system.

Still chuckling softly to himself Williams keyed in his communications to prepare a little…present for these intelligent xenos. He almost felt sorry for the Turians, almost.

**1820 Hours 15 Kilometers out of Lou Yang City limits**

The UNSC Rangers were the best of the best, the most elite of the military (Spartans being of a class all their own) and as such were always put in the most dangerous missions in defense of the NSA. From assassinations, spying and even orbital insertion deep within enemy lines they were threatened on a daily basis. As such it wasn't uncommon for the average age of a ranger to be between 40-60 years old; barely the beginning of youth in this age of modern medicine and medical procedures. These psychological traumas taken into account it was of no surprise that the small team of rangers crouched among the bushes overlooking the Turian camp were all dressed in black armor.

Of course black was an obvious choice for a mission such as this; assassination, sabotage and get the hell out before the xenos knew what hit them. It all sounded good in one's head of course, but rarely did things go so well once the bullets started flying. Rangers of course could get the job done, but it would be difficult and put all their skills to the test, so it was with apprehension that the small 5 unit squad was joined by a non-ranger, a militia at that! Such were the thought of Lieutenant Tristan Jones as he gazed at the Sangheili in question, undoubtedly she was an excellent fighter and she did have experience fighting the magic users among the Turians, he still didn't like jeopardizing the lives of the squad with a non-ranger. Considering this he sidled over till he was at her side.

"Look I know you're a capable fighter, but when we go in there", Tristan points to the enemy base, "I want you to stay behind either me or one of my rangers and mirror our every move". Maras narrowed her small amber eyes but gave a curt nod, good she could take orders. Tristan made a sharp bird like noise signaling the rest of the squad to fall in. The first to join was Zak Saris, a middle aged lithe human with flowing black hair and blue eyes, he seemed to almost blend with his Ranger armor; he was considered one of the best stealth rangers in the entirety of the Rangers being able to appear wherever he wanted virtually out of nowhere. He was second in command as sergeant. Next were the two that always seemed to go everywhere together an odd pair composed of a rather short for Sangheili standards female by the name of Sarkon Saldomin, and a brown skinned human male; Private Louis Flourence the pair had a reputation for making things go boom wherever they went, so it was no surprise they handled demolitions and heavy weapons, Louis and Sarkon respectively. Finally there was the last member of the squad Emily Song a human of Asian descent with the traditional black hair pale skin and slanted eyes. She only sent the same bird noise as she was currently taking up residence in the upper branches of a tree, her eyes and sniper scope providing over watch for the squad.

"Alright I know y'all got the rundown of this op back Lou Yang but I'm gonna run it by you again in case you managed to forget in the short hike over here", Tristan paused for a second looking at the rangers staring at him, "Louis I'm looking at you". Louis only looks at Tristan for a few seconds then gives him a very "respectful" middle fingered salute. Chuckling Tristan continues. "Alright here's how this is gonna rundown General Williams has issued a kill slash capture order on two Turian generals currently residing at this camp, obviously our job is to carry out those orders. At the same time we're gonna give the good grunts back at Lou Yang a bit of relief by destroying that massive armor field you can see over yonder, over a thousand tanks and APCs along with thousands of barrels of fuel; I'm sure you're up for the challenge Louis", Louis nods still staying silent his eyes glowing with anticipation, to Tristan it looked like a child staring at a mound of presents at Christmas time. "At any rate you Sarkon and Emily will be taking care of that little challenge, I'm sure you have plenty of goodies in your pack to get the job done".

"Sir I have enough "tricks" to destroy this entire base" Louis responds immediately.

"Good man", Tristan begins, "While you three do that Maras Zak and I will infiltrate the enemy command post either abduct or kill the generals as the situation sees fit and pull back faster than a Prophet chasing a Forerunner. At this time, provided we have escaped to a safe distance I'll want to see that armor field light up like it's Great War day, this will provide cover for our escape, if all goes according to plan I expect us to get out of here in under an hour and regroup right here", the squad nods their acquiescence to the vagueness of the plan, minor details were much better to be figured out on the spot and allowed for greater flexibility.

"I for one still fail to see why we need a non-ranger here", said Zak as he stared down Maras, she bared her mandibles at him but said nothing.

"Because Zak, she has fought one of their magic users one on one and survived, odds are we're gonna be fighting more of them and having some knowledge of how they act will be useful", Tristan tells Zak instantly quieting the older man. "At any rate you and I'll be able to keep a close eye on her, so if she does something stupid you have my permission to smack her into place", Tristan quips. He looks off to the twinkling lights of the Turian base. "Alright let's get this done people, Emily what's it look like over there?" Emily responds in a soft melodic voice, strange for a veteran soldier.

"Looks clear to me, they probably rely on their tech to alert any infiltration, unluckily for them they've never had to deal with ONI's toys". Tristan smirked; yet again the Turians were going to be taught a cruel lesson in the way of war.

"Alright let's move it out", Tristan states as he moves over to Maras, "alright this shiny new toy you're wearing is the Mk 3 ranger armor and camouflage system. It allows you to go into almost complete invisibility for over a minute with very short recharge times, to activate it just press the very handy little button on your armor interface located on your right forearm", Tristan pauses lifting up his arm so Maras could see the silvery buttons located among the midnight black of the rest of the armor. "I would only recommend using the full charge in emergencies as it greatly depletes your shields energy and can leave you stranded if you need to quickly hide from a patrol or whatnot. Or heat sigs will be perpetually hidden by a thin layer of coolant gel within the armors interior, so that also isn't a problem though I doubt these Turians would be able to detect us anyway. Finally I've taken the liberty of replacing all your firearms with human kinetic ones, realistically the ones that can be easily silenced and concealed. Again I would recommend their use to bare minimum, dead bodies or missing soldiers tend to rouse suspicion", Tristan states this all in a rather rapid fire sentence but it appears Maras receives all the information and gives a quick nod of her head as confirmation.

"Good in that case let's blow this pop stand keep your wits about you and your body hidden and I'll promise we'll get you home to Lou Yang before breakfast". With that the group activates their camouflage and glides their way out of the forest and towards the Turian camp. Maras had seen the camps layout on a holotable before trekking out on the mission but the grainy color of a holotable truly didn't do it justice. Yet again she was amazed by two things, the professionalism and swiftness of the Turian army and their apparent arrogance or ignorance. The camp was well put together with simple metal barracks and halls organized into perfect columns and rows, there wasn't a single thing out of place and it seemed every Turian knew where they were located in the massive war machine. At the same time the camp was missing such vital things that would designate a court martial if a UNSC officer was in charge of the camp. For example a barrier protecting the camp to the outside wilderness was nonexistent it was just a couple hundred feet to the forests edge to the camp, also not a single guard tower could be seen. While it was true that modern tech could very easily and efficiently monitor the surrounding area it could easily be fooled by the very equipment that she and the Rangers surrounding her were wearing, having an organic element allowed for some protection and overlap. Finally the most glaring flaw in the Turians camp was the complete lack of outer defenses, it was as if the Turian didn't think infiltration was even possible, there wasn't a single field of mines, no ditches filled with soldiers ringing the camp, there were sentry guns but it was clear that they were designed to fight off a full on assault and not to repel small threats such as the Rangers. All and all Maras was both amazed and flabbergasted.

This entire viewing put the team on edge however; they assumed it was all a ruse to lull them to a false sense of security. So it was an utter shock to them that after they did a second scan of the approach to the base nothing was found. This new found knowledge in mind the team yet again activated their camouflage and quickly strode into the camp. After crouching in the shadows cast by a small metal barracks, and not being met by any resistance the team split up to perform their designated tasks.

* * *

Louis was both exited and utterly bored at the current mission. Never in his 15 years of service within the UNSC had he partaken in such an easy mission. This supposedly "secure" base was a cake walk to run through, very few patrols and absolutely no issues with detection from tech allowed him to practically stroll from cover to cover. All and all he just wanted to get this mission over with and hope for more excitement later. Of course he supposed he did get to look forward to the pleasant feeling of utterly flattening the massive armor staging area he Sarkon and Emily currently were making their way towards. Getting there had been relatively simple allow Emily, (she was the stealthiest of the three), to go first and follow her to whatever hidey hole or group of shadows she'd found. This coupled with the lack of traditional patrols to dodge and only a couple guards here or there and the trio was making record time only a few meters from the edge of the armor field. Stopping Emily from moving forward he decided he was going to reveal his plan on how to tackle the large target he was tasked with demolishing.

"I've been thinking it over and from the overview of the base we were given I've came up with a plan on how to neutralize the armor" Louis began, "We can't utterly destroy the field as we don't have enough time nor explosives to effectively cover the thousands of tanks and APCs they have over there. Instead we are merely going to cripple their ability to fight, to achieve this we'll be laying explosives at the fuel depot and the munitions warehouse located at the far end of the field; this we effectively prevent the xenos from launching an armored assault until they bring in more munitions and fuel".

"Won't they still have the fuel and ordinance in the armor? And that doesn't affect the APCs nearly as critically", Sarkon critically responded.

"I'd already considered that possibility, the fuel and warehouse are only one part of the plan the second part is this", Louis responded as he swiftly removed his pack pulling out a small hexagonal metal container. Sarkon's eyes immediately lit up, and if you looked closely it almost seemed like she was drooling between her mandibles.

"Is that what I think it is?" she questions hurriedly. Louis grins stroking the smooth black metal of the container.

"Indeed it is, feast your eyes on the EQB Mk1", Louis proudly states as he shows off the container, "this little baby has the power of putting a 1 kilometer square crater in a planets crust, and we'll be putting this in the middle of the armor field".

"What exactly does it do?" Emily asked confused.

"Using incredibly unstable atoms it superheats plasma to a breaking point resulting in a controlled explosion with the heat and blast of a nuclear warhead, without all that nasty fallout", Louis answers proudly stroking the bomb, "Back at the science labs it was dubbed, "the mini earthquake", I have faith it will take care of the armor field". Emily merely nods understandingly while Sarkon continues to drool with obvious reverence to the small container in Louis' hands. "Sarkon and I will handle deploying the EQB, Emily I want you to plant these much more boring and conventional explosives at the fuel and munitions, when we're both done we'll regroup here and either meet up with Tristan's group or pull back to the forest". Both females nod and the trio slip their helmets back on while Louis hands his pack and the rest of the ordinance to Emily. They then glide forward activating camouflage and slip past the two straight backed Turian guards staring into the distance at the armor field, child's play.

Now Emily drifts off at great speeds sprinting through the shadowed hulks of the armor, avoiding the occasional patrol but for the most part simply staying uncloaked and moving as fast as possible to the depots at the far end of the field. This was too easy. Meanwhile Louis and Sarkon had already made it to the center of the field and were in the middle of priming the EQB when a damned Turian patrol came strolling through. Louis looked straight at Sarkon as he heard the dull muted thump of boots on dirt as the patrol grew closer, quickly the pair activated their camouflage and did the best they could to minimalize their profiles. The bomb was already halfway through priming it couldn't be stopped now, attempting to move it from its position would be most…._unsavory_. So both merely prayed as the 8 unit patrol neared them they would not notice the small black container and the dozens of wires connecting it to the primer. It was a vain hope.

* * *

Corporal Salus Vardus hated patrols, he really did. Why did good Turians have to do the jobs that a computer program can do? The incessant marching back and forth, back and forth made him want to tear out his mandibles and in the end it achieved nothing. So it was to his great surprise and amusement that he discovered something out of the ordinary after the fifth time stomping up and down the length of the armor deployment field. It was a small black container connected to other another rectangular box by a plethora of cables and wires. Salus could swear it almost looked like the underbelly of a console. Stopping his squad with a raised fist he cautiously moved closer; this anomaly wasn't here last time. Then out of the corner of his eyes he saw, something. It was almost as if the light near the edge of one of the heavy tanks was distorted, sort of like a mirage seen in the heat of a desert. The light and shapes around it were just oddly distorted and Salus could barely make it out, he activated thermal scans on his helmets HUD but was met only by the cool blues and purples of the tank. That's when he looked at the container. It was a lukewarm green and occasionally fading into dark red as if a great cold exoskeleton was containing a great heat. Immediately he barked to his squad, "BOMB", before he dove for cover at the edge of the tank he witnessed the odd effects on; he hit something warm, and definitely not the smooth metal of the tank. His final thoughts before a black knife was thrust up his head were what the hell he was laying on, and why was it moving?

* * *

Louis whispered a steady spray of profanity in multiple languages as the Turian patrol halted and the leader moved near the EQB. Slowly Louis crept forward unsheathing a large serrated combat dagger preparing to rush ahead and kill the interloper. He sent a signal to Sarkon's helmet HUD telling her to prepare to neutralize the patrol, and then the Turian snapped his head and looked straight at Louis. With a sharp intake of breath Louis realized that his camouflage energy levels were reaching a fourth full and to compensate for more time the cloak was becoming slightly less effective. It would emit distortions profiling Louis' body and if one looked closely enough you could almost see his outline. Instantly freezing Louis held his breath, his heart pounding. Then the lone Turian issued that dreaded word, _BOMB_ instantly Louis acted moving forward slightly the Turian jumped for cover, probably thinking the EQB was going to go off any second, it would seem the Turians were still paranoid of bombs after the minefields. Fortunately for Louis and unfortunately for the Turian he landed right on top the Ranger's crouched form, instantly pushing the Turian back he thrust his blade into the back of the Turian's head, in the chink of his armor separating his helmet from the rest of the body. Quickly pulling out his knife Louis canceled his cloak and gripped the two suppressed SMGs on his waist rushing forward he saw Sarkon do the same, nodding quickly in her direction he rushed to where the red dots on his HUD's compass were closest.

Leaping atop a small APC he sent a hail of bullets on the bodies of two Turians crouched in cover behind the vehicle, they were quickly dispatched, half a dozen small holes appearing in both of their chests as the crumpled completely to the ground. Looking around Louis ducked as he saw a third Turian rise and squeeze the trigger to the assault rifle in his hand. The loud noise rang across the forlorn field and in an instant Louis knew the game was up, sending all his power to shields and only a small fraction to the cloak emitters he ducked and rose again the smooth motion resulting in the Turian falling dead, his head half missing as this time a dozen rounds peppered a xeno. Daring a look behind him he noted that two other Turians were dead, one with its head bent at an impossible angle and the other missing a large portion of meat where its chest should be. Louis smiled; he did love the handy work of Sarkon, spotting the Sangheili brawling with the two remaining aliens he rushed forward taking one by surprise and burying it in his bulk pushing the creature to the ground and popping a SMG fire into its mouth. Rising he heard the gurgling of the last Turian as its throat was cut in one smooth motion from the large dagger in Sarkon's right hand. Dropping the now dead body to the ground she looked past Louis' shoulder and rushed at him, barreling him to the ground. He found out why a second later as a barrage of fire slammed into the tank in front of him. He gripped Sarkon tight and roared in her ears over the cacophony of the loud gun fire.

"Keep them busy, I'll take care of the EQB, we need to finish its deployment and get the hell out of here!" Louis bellowed at her helmet about where her ears would be. Not saying a word Sarkon re applied her cloak and disappeared only to reappear a few moments later _behind _the new squad as she sent a rain of controlled fire upon the two nearest targets, instantly the squad turned to face this new threat apparently forgetting Louis. Taking his chances and trusting Sarkon to provide an adequate distraction Louis rushed forward to continue the priming of the EQB. The EQB was not like most high grad explosives within the UNSC's arsenal. Most bombs of such caliber would already be automated and would merely need deployment and remote detonation. The EQB was different as the unstable atoms and plasma had to stay in separate containers until deployment. that meant the two separate parts of the bomb were kept separate and would only be connected by a rather difficult to create "bridge" connecting the two boxes that was capable of containing the unstable atoms as they moved from one box to the next all while allowing remote detonation. All in all Louis hated the current system seeing dozens of flaws in it and hoping that it will be greatly improved once the Author of the fanfiction gains more inspiration and creativity…or the R&D will just streamline it more. *cough *cough. In any case Louis was frantically at work manipulating the delicate electronics and machinery as he created the bridge and automatic detonation all while hearing the constant roar of automated fire behind him broken up by frantic cries as Sarkon cloaked and uncloaked, constantly shifting position generating great fear among the Turians as they couldn't keep track of her expertly executed stalking tactics. Louis didn't know how long he was at work; all he knew were the movements of his fingers, the intricate machinery and the gunfire surrounding him. Finally he was done, laying the last part of the trigger mechanism into place. Turning he was met face first with the barrel of a rifle. The Turian holding it made an odd half chirping noise, half screeching noise from its throat, probably trying to get Louis to surrender; bad move.

Moving in a blur Louis wrenched the gun to the side, throwing his gauntleted fist forward catching the Turian straight on the jaw. Louis was pleased to hear the cracking of bones as the Turian's jaw shattered, he quickly put the Turian out of his misery and came face to face with no less than 6 guns pointed at him. Breathing slowly out and in he recalled all of his Ranger training and came up with a plan in no less than a split second activating his camo he slid to the side as the Turians, now used to this phenomenon opened up with a large spray of fire in the general area where he was originally standing, luckily he was no longer there. He prepared himself as he sent a _get over here now! _Signal to Sarkonhe then waded straight into the Turians, SMGs blazing as he took down two of the surprised bastards in an instant that satisfaction quickly faded as his shields came under heavy fire from the 4 remaining soldiers. Louis heard the whining blare of his shields reaching critical level then a quick pop as the shields fell under the sustained fire. Hopping to the nearest Turian he ripped the gun from its talons turning the alien around to shield Louis' own body, moving quickly he backpedaled buying some time as his shields slowly recharged, cursing even more he fired a short burst from the gun in his right hand and was rewarded with yet another Turian falling to the ground. It seemed his luck was out however as the 2 others seemed to forget he was holding one of their compatriots and opened fire, his shields once again gone Louis abandoned his macabre and thrashing shield breaking the Turians neck in the process. He allowed himself to find peace as the Turians leveled their weapons upon him. he was wrenched from his reverie as he heard a strangled cry rise in front of him. Opening his eyes Louis was greeted with the oh so wonderful sight of one Turian with limbs splayed out, its face frozen in shock as a metal blade exploded from its chest. The last Turian prepared to take revenge taking aim at Louis and he knew Sarkon would not have time to stop him, yet the barrage never came.

Once again wrenching his eyes open Louis saw the Turian laying on the ground a hole gaping open in its head. Louis twirled around in search of his savior. Sighing deeply he noted the familiar black armored form of Emily as she held her smoking sniper rifle.

"I heard you needed some help", she quipped softly. Grinning Louis nods and motions for Sarkon to join him.

"Well that was hairy", Louis muttered looking around the ground strewn with Turian corpses and blood, "In any case the EQB is fully deployed and we better get out of here double time". The trio moved with great speed nearing the edge of the camp just as they heard a sharp blaring alarm spring up around the camp coupled with the sounds of Turian cries moving closer to the armor field. Louis smiled, other than the bodies they would find nothing; in addition to deploying the EQB he fitted it with a camouflage system, in hindsight he should have probably deployed that first. He hoped Tristan's group was having an easier time than this. Although Louis admitted it had been rather exciting.

* * *

Tristan cursed as he heard the alarm spring about the camp, they were so close to the command post he could feel it. He knew his team hadn't been detected they had made record time with Zak taking the lead followed by Maras shadowing his every move and Tristan bringing up the rear. It had been easy as ABC, moving about the camp that was until now. The trio was hidden behind a large group of crates directly in front of the command post when suddenly they heard shots ring out in the darkness followed soon after by this accursed alarm. Now Turians were streaming out of the barracks surrounding them rushing around in various states of undress to the armor field. He was about to cancel the mission and fall back with all possible speed when he received the mission accomplished message from Louis stating that the Turians would find only bodies. Now he had to decide how to go about this rather messy task of taking out two high value targets alerted to infiltration. After a rather short and to the point deliberation with Zak (Maras awkwardly huddled to the side) it was decided the trio would continue with the operation.

Utilizing the chaos of the rushing of dozens of turians around the command post the soldiers activated their cloaks and with a controlled burst of speed rushed through the throng of bodies and snuck into the open doors of the command post, right under the snouts of two Turian guards standing as stiff as a statue staring straight ahead. Tristan applauded their professionalism but yet again stomped all over their arrogance. As the trio entered the entrance they saw the rather amusing sight of a snoozing Turian guard and attendant sitting at a desk their heads flat on the table, how anyone could sleep in this racket was beyond Tristan but he took the reprieve and uncloaked he was quickly followed by Zak and Maras. Chuckling softly Zak strode forward and casually lifted the soldier's head and cut his throat, followed by the attendant. Maras stood their shocked floored to her very core at the utter brutality she just witnessed, Tristan didn't looked shocked rather he looked slightly sad as if disappointed this had to happen.

"Why in the name of the Forerunners did you do that?" She whispered fiercely. Zak only shrugged his shoulders replying.

"They were a threat, now we need to move desk had security cams, targets are down the hall 2 door on our left 2 guards flanking the door and another two positioned at the far end of the room" Zak replies wiping his knife on the armor of the Turian soldier. Shaking his head Tristan moves forward and motions for Maras to do the same.

Several moments later they are yet again stopped at a metal door they hear muffled talking behind it. Tristan motions to Zak and a moment later the older man winks from sight. Tristan sighs lowers his head for just a few seconds and grabs and pistol and flash bang grenade from his waist. It was now or never.

**10 Minutes earlier**

General Kydonos was tired and depressed. Tired at having stayed up for the second night in a row trying to deal with the mess that the arrogant Romulus had caused, depressed at the tens of thousands of Turians that were dead and the hundreds of thousands Turians like Romulus were willing to see die to achieve their goals. It seemed like those kinds of Turians were all the Hierarchy was composed of these days, young ambitious bastards who despise the rules and regulations the Hierarchy is built around and somehow find and way to survive and thrive despite that hatred. So it was left to the elders like Kydonos to pick up the pieces and rebuild. Kydonos was old and tired his scales withering and the hide underneath greying, he was ready to retire and live out his life at a nice spa in some far away world, maybe Thessia. He was interrupted from his "daydreams" by an alert on his Omnitool, clicking the beeping hologram he was rewarded by the sight of a haggard colonel standing in what looked like the armor field.

"Yes Colonel?" Kydonos asked staring at the officer's picture. The Turian hesitated as if he wasn't sure what to say.

"Well sir we've had an …infiltration", the colonel began, "but perhaps it would just be better to show you what happened". The image switched to a feed of a soldier's helmet cam, Kydonos then saw in excruciating detail the firefight that ensued, until the soldier whose helmet cam they were watching died. He was replaced by another soldier and another until the fight ended almost as quickly as it began. Throughout the entirety of the video only grainy images of a mysterious figure cloaked in shadows could be seen, sometimes there was nothing at all and the Turian soldiers only companions were the darkness and the armor surrounding them, that was until they randomly started dropping dead. It raised Kydonos' hackles and sent a shiver down his spine. He hadn't seen such horrifying images since that vid about a cable of rogue STG agents, and these mysterious super soldiers seemed to outclass the STG in every single way imaginable. He made his decision almost immediately. He walked over the nearest console and immediately issued a camp wide lockdown and alert; the Turians wouldn't be caught by surprise anymore.

"Colonel have your men do a complete sweep of the field, I want groups of a dozen at all times anything less than that and you'll be destroyed", Kydonos commanded, the Colonel saluted and the feed cut. No sooner did Kydonos here an alarm go off in the camp. Walking over to where his companion, the other rouge General Gion was seated Kydonos poured himself a copious amount of affa and tried to gather his nervous thoughts.

"What do you make of this ?" the red scaled Turian asked Kydonos

Kydonos paused, he himself didn't know quite what was going on, "I don't know Gion, these aliens were at the armor field so perhaps sabotage, they couldn't be here for us we're at least a 3 kilometers away from the armor field" Gion nodded seeming satisfied with the answer, "In any case they were detected and mischief they had planned won't work now".

No sooner had the words left Kydonos' lips before the door was pushed open, looking over Kydonos didn't see anything than a slight shimmer in the air, then a small grey cylinder landed nearly on top of him. His vision was filled with an awful all-encompassing white light and it felt like his ears were bleeding from the horrendously loud explosion, he was only saved by his lifetime experience, dropping to a prone position he gripped his pistol in his hand and waited for the light to clear from his vision.

* * *

Tristan rushed into the small room as soon as the flash bang went off, running in he saw only five Turians all thrashing on the ground, immediately he put a round into each of the guards on either side of him and made his way to the stately dressed alien in the center of room. He grunted his satisfaction upon noting he was one of the generals. Throwing the shaking body out of the room he quickly motioned for Zak to detain him. It was then Tristan notice the other two guards recovering he moved to kill them but was stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed both males stiffen and slump to the floor revealing the uncloaked form of Maras holding a glistening black sword. Grinning his appreciation he was surprised by her widening eyes as she looked past him to something behind him. Turning around not even the incredible reflexes of the veteran Ranger was able to save him from the glowing purple blast the Turian behind him sent his way. Twisting Tristan lunged but was unsuccessful, he felt as if his left leg had been dipped in a bucket of razors as he was sent violently into the far wall. Looking down he realized with shock his armor was mangled and broken his foot taking on the image of ground meat with bones sticking out of it. that was all he remembered before he blacked out.

* * *

Maras cloaked instantly remembering the skill the magic user she fought before displayed; she was going to take no chances with this dangerous specimen. She walked up straight behind him and thrust with all her might plunging the blade clean through the ageing Turians neck. The xeno fell to its first set of knees uselessly flailing its limbs to try and attack Maras she silenced him by giving a quick yank, beheading him. The alien was silent now. Zak ran back into the room hearing the racket caused by the tenacious beheaded Turian instantly his eyes widened upon seeing Tristan.

"We need to help him and get out of here", she yelled at the older man, he looked at her queerly for a few seconds.

"We can't get both him and the prisoner", Maras was shocked the sheer callousness of the man terrifying her.

"I assure you I can manage him, you worry about your precious prisoner", She spat back vehemently.

"Fine, but if you fall behind I leave you behind". She didn't say a word only striding over to Tristan after gingerly applying medi gel to his mangled foot she scooped him up into her arms and walked over to Zak. He was pretty much in the same situation except he had the Turian general roughly tied up and slung over one shoulder like it was a corpse. Looking at her he applied his camouflage (which extended to the Turian) and crept back down the hall. Mirroring his movements she did the same, only activating Tristan's own cloak so she didn't waste excess power. It was a long and sometimes heart pounding escape from the camp but in time Maras was rewarded with the wonderful sight of the forest and 3 more green dots appearing on her HUD. She nearly collapsed with relief, and in one shorter run from the edge of the camp to the forest she was safe.

"Shit, what happened to the Lieutenant?!" Maras was dimly aware of Louis' panicked cry but the rest faded as her body extreme weariness from the weeks abuses caught up to her. She didn't know how long she was out, probably not very long, but she was awakened by a shake to her shoulder.

"Hey sleeping beauty wake up you'll miss the fireworks", she looked back at Louis' face blinking repeatedly trying to get the pain from behind her eyes to go away. Standing up she noticed he had a detonator in his right hand and was repeatedly stroking the big obvious red button in the center. No sooner did she stand and look back to the Turian camp did he press down on it. There was silence for all of two seconds, and then the air was filled with fire. Great gout of light and energy erupted from the center f the Turian camp even from this distance, kilometers away; Maras could feel the awesome heat being generated from the explosion. When the shockwave hit, a soft muffled thump Maras felt deep in her chest, despite all of the night's horrors and Tristan's current wounded state Louis had a look of Euphoria over him. Maras reminded herself to stay far, far away from him in the future.

**A/N. Well this took a long time to get to you guys. From going to band camp and discovering the wonder that is the Total war series I have been away from writing for an ungodly long amount of time. As for this chapter I'm kind of meh about it and I only really did it on request, as you can tell I'm not the best at writing stealthy encounters. You guys decide if you want me to do more of this kind of material however and I promise I'll get better. By the way I'm very disappointed in you all for not discovering the very subtle Star Wars reference in the previous chapter, it's subtle but it's there. Also I stress the fact that you're guys criticism is what inspires me to write (I'm kind of a review whore) so either please stroke my ego or strike me down for being a horrible writer either way I'd really love it if you guys reviewed and told me what you think. At that I leave you at the cliffhanger to the epic conclusion of the Battle of Lou Yang until then, JoetheHighlord out.**


	7. What the Future holds

_There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel. -Vladimir Lenin, Russian Revolutionary _

**Chapter 7 **

**What the Future Holds; an intermission of sorts**

**June 3****rd****, 2650, Serpent Nebula the Citadel Presidium**

The lights of the Citadel were always on, harsh and synthetic. The cruel white beams destroyed any sense of peace and realism that might be felt at the presidium. The entire affair of simulated sky and atmosphere felt like a bad joke. The sky was obviously fake, the skycars roaring overhead adding to the awful cacophony, add in the constant hustle and bustle of tens of thousands of people going about their day and all you have is a glorified shopping mall. At least that's what one Turian thought.

Mr. Cadmus Arinus Vakarian was a simple Turian, while some may think his life as a savvy and wealthy business Turian may make him seem important and snobbish to him it was the exact opposite. He didn't like the hustle and bustle of the big cities, the annoying politicians and fellow executives of businesses. No he preferred the quiet of the humble colonies, the ones you could where you could go for a walk and not see signs of civilization for miles, those were the kind of things he enjoyed. So the prospect of having to spend the next few months at the Citadel on behalf of his boss, the Turian Councilor, was probably going to result in the consumption of many anti migraine medication. Still he supposed he rarely got to see his children as both of them lived on the Citadel working for C-Sec this would be a good chance to catch up with the pair. The walk back to his apartment suite was for the most part the same as always, he walked on the far right, bought a single cup of affa and a pastry at his favorite bakeshop and proceeded to go straight home at a rather brisk pace. Today however felt different it just felt wrong, wherever he looked he saw things out of the ordinary mostly people.

On his daily walk back and forth he had noticed the many patterns that the citizens of the presidium made and for the most part it stayed true, but today there were slight…discrepancies. For example a shop being closed there, a pair of C-Sec guards that always stood at that one spot overlooking a bridge was missing and even the occasional missing person who always sat or stood at the same spot at this particular time. For the most part Cadmus was able to shake it off as his being on edge in a crowded place, but he couldn't quite shake that sense of unease. So it was a great load of his mind when he finally saw the squat white building that composed the apartments he shared with his children.

Nodding slightly to the two Turian guards standing at the entrance he made his way up to his private office. Deciding to take a few hours for himself afterwards he'd check on Garrus and Solana, his children. Settling in for a nice night in Cadmus grabbed a glass of mulled cider and sat down in his living room, doing his best just to relax. Flicking on his vidscreen, he slid further into the well upholstered couch and was soon having trouble keeping his eyes open. The last thing he remembered clearly was an annoying infovid about something called "The Zham-Wow".

* * *

Cadmus was having a wonderful dream. In it he was walking along some unnamed garden world, completely untamed by civilization. He went where no others had gone before his eyes beholding natural wonders and undiscovered beauty. Soon he found himself at the peak of a massive mountain; he could see farther than he had ever done so before his eyes trailing over the massive sea of green that composed the valley below him. Turning he noticed the roiling black clouds that designated a storm growing and steadily approaching. Suddenly lightning arched from the bottom of one titanic cloud stretching down with crackling energy till it touched the ground with a majestic light show. The sound waves finally reached Cadmus and he heard the loud report of thunder as the flash faded from sight

With a flash of light and another thunderous boom Cadmus realized the storm was growing to close. Frantically he fled down the mountain seeking the lowest ground possible, but it almost seemed like he couldn't move as fast, his fast superturian speed from earlier replaced by the slow meander akin to an Elcor. The lightning was getting all to close and common now, flashes illuminating the now dark valley as sheets of rain poured down from the heavens quenching the short lived fires created by the blasts. With each thunderous boom the beams of light grew closer, until it felt like his ears may begin to bleed from the sound.

The storm soon picked up an unnatural evil nature; the rain turning into massive clouds of hail that struck the ground with a short barely noticeable pitter patter greatly muted by the much louder thunder. Just as Cadmus finally reached the basin of the valley time seemed to slow, the hail all but stopped and he heard only one thunderous boom before all turned to white.

* * *

Panting like a varren Cadmus jumped up from his position on the couch. He cringed for several seconds and looked around him in horror as he heard the same thunder as in his dream now only muted. Cursing to himself at what was probably children playing unattended he groggily got up and made his way to the door. He quickly made his way to the door as the noises down below suddenly and sharply stopped, replaced by a queer silence that made Cadmus want to scratch his scales off.

Suddenly the door to the emergency staircase burst open, one of Cadmus' guards sprinting out of the door.

"Mr. Vakarian, you need to get out of here! We're under-"the Turian didn't manage to finish his sentence as he suddenly slumped to the floor, blood pooling around his head. With a start Cadmus saw 3 midnight dressed turians standing at the bottom of the staircase, one holding a rifle. Seeing him they opened fire. His former instincts of a C-sec agent coming back to him Cadmus immediately hit the floor and rolled out of the way as soon as he saw the mysterious assailants. Using his Omnitool he overloaded the door to the stairwell running as fast as he could to Garrus' and Salona's suites. Scooping up the gun on the way he saw to his grim realization that the attackers were cutting through the door.

Running on his way he passed the elevators and saw that someone was coming up, Cadmus simply sprinted by; he didn't have the codes to stop the elevator and didn't have time to hack it, he needed to get to his children. After a short run that had the middle aged Turian gripping his sides in exhaustion he reached his children's wing of the floor. His desperation grew as he saw the two Turians guarding the wing were dead, the window nearest to them shattered from the outside. Inside the room he heard the muffled sound of wood splintering and glass shattering.

Running inside at speeds he didn't know he was capable anymore he saw three of the unknown Turians lying on the floor clearly dead. another two were grappling fiercely over what looked like the remnants of a coffee table. Recognizing Solana as one of the combatants he waited until the assailant had his back to him, Cadmus then put three small shards of metal through the pyjack's head. As what was obviously an assassin fell to the floor Solana stared at her father for 3 seconds before she rushed forward and launched a hug upon him her shoulders wracked with sobs, he realized why easily enough; Solana had never killed before the three other dead Turians were likely dispatched by her. He awkwardly hugged her back truly unsure what to do other than to say, "it's alright, it's alright", a couple times. Slowly she peeled away from him, her crying stopped but still having a haunted look in her forest green eyes. Suddenly he realized with a start Garrus was nowhere in sight.

"Where's your brother?" he asked worriedly scanning the hall for the fore mentioned Turian. He was interrupted by a familiar gravelly voice.

"I'm right here, sorry but I didn't feel I should interrupt the family bonding, some of our "friends" also wanted to have a word with me. It was a short and to the point conversation", the voice said. Twisting around Cadmus felt his heart finally still at the sight of his son unharmed, covered in Turian blood but unharmed all the same.

"You're attacked by unknown Turians, guards you have known you entire life die defending you but you still find it necessary to interject humor?" Cadmus asked exasperated at his son. "Well at least I know you'll never change". Garrus parted his mandibles to interject but was interrupted by the sound of boots behind the sealed door to the hall. There were more of them.

"Normally I'd suggest we teach these ignorant fools who they're dealing with, but I think we'd run into a few snags with that plan" Garrus finally said after a few seconds of messing with his Omnitool. Waving his arm the vidscreen turned on to the image of the security cam in the hall, there were more assassins. At least a dozen in fact all stacking up to breach the room several glowing with the purple barriers of biotics.

"Sounds like you're finally thinking with your head", Cadmus said to his son, "Are there any other ways out of here?"

"There's a fire escape connected to the window of my room", Solana offered, "But it leads down to the courtyard, and if I had to hazard a guess they'll be more of those attackers outside".

"It certainly beats dying in this Spirit forsaken apartment, let's go", Cadmus decided heading for Solana's room, "Grab a weapon and go, we don't have much time". Solana picked up a Vindicator battle rifle lying on the floor while Garrus merely cradled the Mantis sniper rifle in his hands, hesitantly picking up a pistol from the floor as well. As one the trio moved out Solana's window and after making sure the coast was clear they climbed down to the alley below.

"Well no time like the present", Cadmus whispered to himself as he cautiously moved forward into the courtyard. Seeing no one he straightened and motioned for his children to follow. Cadmus truly was disturbed though, by the lack of civilians and by the lack of law enforcement; C-Sec should be crawling all over this place by know. Seeing no other assassins and assuming they had given them the slip he allowed himself a small victory he smiled to himself. That was until 6 black dressed Turians stepped out from cover and began shooting at him and his children. The three dived for the nearest cover but it did them no good as Cadmus saw the assassins from earlier climbing down the fire escape taking potshots at him as they went. Seeing no other option Cadmus roared over the crackle of the gunfire at Garrus and Solana.

"You two, I want you to run for, don't stop moving and don't look back; I'm going to buy you some time", he shouted. Garrus had a look of incredulity on his face however.

"Have you been snorting Red sand? We're not leaving you!" he shouted back indignantly.

"YES you are, you'll be killed if you stay here", his point was accented by a puff of stone as the concrete fountain he was ducked behind was hit by a awry round, "Listen to me, once you get to safety find Dr. Mordin Solus, he's ex STG owes me a bunch of favors back from my years at C-Sec; he'll know what to do. Whatever you do DON'T stay on the citadel!" Garrus moved to argue further but was stopped by Solana resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Dad's right", she said all the while looking straight into her father's eyes, "We have to go now, it's the only way". Finding himself outnumbered Garrus shut his mouth but he looked like he wanted to kill every other Turian in sight.

"Good girl", Cadmus admired, "You remind me so much of your mother, keep a close eye on Garrus don't let him do anything to stupid. And Garrus please don't dwell on this moment; it's not your fault. Now Run, and know your father will always love you!" as the last words passed Cadmus' mandibles he sprung to his feet assault gun blaring as he took down one attacker, then another and another. Instantly every single assassin focused fire on this much more important threat. Cadmus felt the first few rounds enter his chest as he stumbled to the ground. He looked off into the distance and saw that Garrus and Solana had disappeared having run off after he made his move. Slowly the constant fire died down, but he didn't notice; he was beyond worrying about this mortal coil. He fell backwards to the ground. In his last lucid moments of life the fake sky of the Presidium almost looked real, it was a comforting sight.

* * *

In the distance a certain Turian watched Cadmus' final moments impassively. His talons dancing across his Omnitool for a few moments until the image of his Lord, Bruttianus, appeared.

"My Lord, Cadmus has been taken care of; however the children escaped, should we give chase?" the assassin asked Bruttianus.

"Nay, there are no witnesses where your men are currently are stationed giving chase would only require paying off more people", Bruttianus replied.

"The children are witnesses and members of C-Sec to boot".

"It will not matter they have already been expelled from C-Sec and none will take the word of impressionable younglings to heart".

"The name Vakarian is well respected", the assassin argued.

"Not after today", Bruttianus replied coldly ending the argument, "I will not risk the plan for the sake of two hopeless fools. Now if there is nothing else give my regards to Executor Pallin, his expertise regarding C-Sec and the Citadel were most handy**"**.

"It will be done my lord".

**One Week later, Serpent Nebula the Citadel Council chambers**

It came to be known as the Purges. With one savage strike in the span of a week after Sparatus' official death confirmation Bruttianus made his bid for complete power. Those few poor souls who remained loyal to Sparatus' conservative party after his death were all but annihilated, throughout a complete blackout of the media took place in the Hierarchy. It had all culminated when an Asari Matriarch sent by Tevos herself tried to enter Palaven space the Turian Commodore guarding the relay then threatened the immediate removal of all Turian fleets patrolling Asari space if the Asari ship continued to try to enter the Hierarchy. Luckily for the stubborn Matriarch the Purges were all but over at this point and the Hierarchy emerged from its complete blackout…as the New Turian Republic. It was all just a great facade though, the senate and "Supreme Chancellor" being nothing more than puppets to where the real power lay; the "Committee of Galactic Safety", which of course was headed by Bruttianus. Add in that he was "unanimously voted" in as Sparatus' replacement on the council and it didn't take a Salarian super genius to understand he was the mastermind behind the literal thousands of deaths that had racked the Hierarchy the last few days. These thoughts whirled through the ancient Asari Councilor as she considered the bastard himself as he sat before him, to tell the truth she had no idea what to do.

It was quite apparent as soon as the Hierarchy, no the Turian Republic, reemerged on the galactic scene that Bruttianus was either in complete power or he was a mastermind of propaganda on a titanic scale. 'Probably both' Tevos thought; it obviously took a sort of genius to plan this seamless of a coup and execute it perfectly. In any case the Turian population and leadership was firmly behind Bruttianus as he made sweeping reform and legislature within the Republic, and now he was sitting right next to her in the seat of a councilor complete in his cradle of power, she decided it was time to make her move.

"You must think we are fools", her words were bitter and did little to contain there spite. To Tevos' astonishment Bruttianus did not react in the slightest he continued to sit in his chair staring at his Omnitool as he read the latest headlines coming from the Republic; probably making sure they fit his standards. She looked at Valren, the Salarian Councilor, but she merely shrugged her shoulders and looked back at Bruttianus. Bruttianus didn't seem to even notice the seething Asari councilor.

"You may have fooled the Hierarchy be we are not blinded, we know what you are and what you have done", Tevos continued her tirade her animosity to the withered Turian coming out in full force, "But you are an idiot if you think either of us will ever accept you as councilor!" Again Bruttianus did not react, he did nothing in fact but made several sharp motions on his Omnitool before letting the orange glow fade and slowly putting his arm down. Finally he leveled his gaze to the raging Asari in front of him, if Tevos didn't know better it would have looked like he was almost amused.

"My dear, dear Tevos whatever have I done to warrant such hate from you?" He asked his voice silky and smooth, a complete contradiction to how Tevos was spitting out her words. That put her over the edge his calm, "ignorant demeanor" made her want to rip her crests out.

"You know EXACTLY what you have done you insufferable old bird! You murdered Councilor Sparatus, murdered thousands of innocent Turians, all so you could play being king!" Finally Tevos got the reaction she had wanted although it was lacking to a great degree. Bruttianus locked eyes with her seeming to forget completely about Valern; slowly and impassively he waved his hand as the orange glow of an Omnitool yet again appeared.

"I say this only now as I have disabled any possible recording equipment within the entire tower, a precaution I thought you should have known well", his words were dispassionate like scolding a disobedient child, "I hate this Council, I hate this chair I hate both of you and what you represent. I would like nothing more than to completely withdraw from the Council altogether but I cannot; a Turian most always be on the Council and what better to send than the best. For the sake of unity you may hate me all you want and I will hate you but we must continue to _endure _or the galaxy will fall on us like varrens on a group of pyjacks". To say that Tevos was stunned was an understatement she completely didn't know what to say, she sputtered pointlessly for a few seconds but finally found her center and retaliated.

"My hatred is irrelevant; you have broken crimes against the galaxy and must be punished. You have murdered a Councilor and committed a bloody coup of a council species. There can be no other compromise than your immediate step down or the Asari will remove you from power, I know I speak for Valern when I say the Salarians will stand with us in that event". Tevos gives her ultimatum laying her final hand, she KNEW not even Bruttianus would be crazy enough to risk a galactic war to retain power. Bruttianus said nothing looking queerly at the pair for a few seconds before he spoke again his voice soft deadly and completely serious.

"Listen carefully for I will only say this once. I speak for ALL Turians of the Republic, if you attempt to remove me or any Turians from power we will abandon the Citadel, if you attempt to recreate the old Hierarchy we WILL abandon the Citadel, if you attempt to go to war with us we WILL destroy you without a seconds thought. And if I am…removed you can be assured to know _Councilor _Tevos that a certain little known beacon of the Asari will become a well-known beacon for the entire galaxy!"

Tevos' blood drained from her face she felt herself grow faint; 'how did he know of the beacon of Athame?! If the knowledge of the Prothean VI ever became public information she knew the entire Asari race would be doomed for centuries'. She decided at that point he had gone too far and he would be removed. damn politics and damn the rest of the galaxy, the safety and prosperity of the Asari came before anything else in the galaxy and that beacon was their only trump card. She merely gritted her teeth and tried to ignore Valern when she started asking what Bruttianus was talking about she didn't notice him leaving the room, Tevos in fact knew very little at this point her world having descended into one very simple phrase. Bruttianus must die.

* * *

**A/N I know this Is quite the change of pace from the rest of the story but I said earlier that this wouldn't be the standard first contact war of, "turians invade Shanxi, they get their asses kicked humans invade citadel and force a peace with the council" I have decided the only way that a war would truly last was if there was a viable and good reason on both sides. With that said I needed to have something that will…renovate the council into something that will be much more willing to go to war with the NSA. I can understand if you guys don't like the way I'm taking this story so feel free to leave any MAJOR concerns and I'll address them and you may convince me to even change the plotline if you present your cases well enough. On another note it has recently come to my attention (big shout out to Solrac III) that I have made a little oops regarding the Kig-Yar in this story, according to Canon some actually sided with the Separatists. that said I would like you guys to help me in deciding on how I should integrate them into the NSA. Finally let it be known that the epic conclusion the battle of Lou Yang is almost done as well and you won't have to wait much longer until that is posted as well. Until than I yet again beg that you guys review and –JoetheHighlord out. **


	8. The Battle of Lou Yang Part 3

_We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another._

_-Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer, advent of the Atomic age_

**The Battle of Lou Yang: Part 3**

**Shanxi System June 15 2650, Turian base camp**

It was in a word immense. A massive smoking blackened crevice in the ground that stretched for an epic distance, about a kilometer in diameter and depth it was almost a perfect square of destruction and it was right in the middle of the Turian camp. Romulus viewed the destruction with a tightening in his chest; over half of his mechanized ground units were destroyed, nonexistent and just like that the Turian cracked, the entire week and a half of crazed warfare with the wildly advanced race had left the poor general a ruined wreck. He cradled himself as he saw the wanton destruction, the proof that these aliens were nothing more than barbarians willing to corrupt their world with nuclear weapons to destroy their enemies. They NEEDED to be destroyed; they needed to be shown the true light of civilization and Romulus was going to lead them to that light; first he just needed to stomp on them a little bit. Considering the situation he was in he should have been enraged, terrified or saddened he was neither, he was calmly smiling as his aircraft finally touched down on the outskirts of the Turian camp. Romulus wanted nothing else than order the final charge into that spirits forsaken city and kill every non Turian in sight; the Marshal was mad. His second in command, the recently appointed General Gaius came running to the mantis drop ship only bothering to hastily salute as he walked over to Romulus.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" He asked clearly confused at Romulus' erratic behavior. Romulus gazed back at Gaius his eyes drifting across the Turian as if he really wasn't focusing on his features.

"I had to see it for myself Gaius, see it in all its glory" Romulus cryptically responded as he gazed across the plains at only something he could see. "We must march we must destroy them, we must destroy them all!" His mad words reached a fevered pitch as he looked at the alien city, the rising star bathing it in a holy orange glow.

"Sir I beg you we cannot continue this battle, the aliens have won we have lost here; over half of our armor is gone and a third of our soldiers are dead! If we continue this battle any longer we won't win", the General's voice was pleading and it spoke with great wisdom but Romulus was far beyond reason, these pathetic barbarians had embarrassed him for the last time; the Commodore would have his alien planet. His words were absolute as he gazed at the Turian general.

"At nightfall, you will lead an invasion with all of our remaining forces, infantry, armor, fighters, gunships all of it. And you will take that city if the last Turian dies raising our flag!" his anger clearly brokered no argument his stroking of his pistol should have been a warning to Gaius, it was not.

"Field Marshal, I will not! The Republic was meant to create a government where we are not subservient and dumb grunts blindly following foolish orders. I have served you to the best of my ability but I see now that you are unfit for command! I will not order 500,000 Turians to their deaths!" Gaius finally had enough his love of his soldiers finally overwhelming his fear of Romulus. Romulus said nothing for a long time shaking slowly as he took deep, deep breathes. His guards stood tensely looking as if they knew what was going to happen next.

"You are defying your commanding officer?"

"Yes".

Romulus ripped his pistol from its holster unfolding it as he went and sent a single shard of metal through Gaius' head; the Turian was dead before he hit the ground.

"Look well!" Romulus shouted at all the Turians surrounding him, "This is the price of failure and insubordination!" he pointed at the still warm corpse of Gaius, suddenly he straightened and looked around until he found the highest ranking officer who had seen the fiasco, "You Commander you are now General and you will be leading the final assault at dusk, is that clear?" To the Turian commander's credit he did not quiver, he did not waver he held his ground and saluted Romulus as if the shooting had not even taken place. Romulus gazed over to the city already forgetting everything that just transpired; his universe completely devolved into an all-consuming desire to see the city burn to the ground.

**6 hours later Lou Yang Bunker **

Tristan remembered pain a lot of pain, he remembered hitting the wall and then nothing but black. He remembered being picked up and later being set down, he remembered an awful loud bang, and thump in the chest as if someone had shot a shotgun in his ear and punched him in the chest simultaneously finally he remembered the sweet smell of fresh air, only to be replaced by the cold dank of something deep underground. Then he recalled white lights, hushed tones and beeping consoles and then once again there was nothing. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of nothing but black and waiting, the white lights started to return as well as the beeping. Slowly but surely Tristan reentered the land of the living his eyes glazed as he gazed about his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was that he was underground; he hated being underground there were far too few places to hide and generally only a couple ways out. The second thing he noticed was he was sitting in a medical clinic, lying in a generic white cot that existed in a small row that stretched for a few dozen cots in either direction of Tristan. He was glad to notice that very few of the cots were occupied. His mind tried to work out why he was sitting in a hospital when it all came back to him; the mission the attack on the command post being hit by the Generals magic and hitting the wall, grimacing he slowly lifted the sheets of his cot determined not to flinch when he looked at the state of his foot. To his great relief it was whole, pink raw and sore as all seven hells, but whole all the same. Tristan decided that he was going to make the largest donation he could to whoever invented medigel. Hearing a commotion he looked up to see the familiar forms of his squad.

"Well, well, well if it isn't sleeping beauty rising from her eternal slumber!" Arrived Louis' taunting voice, "What's wrong, did Cinderella cut her foot on a glass slipper?" Louis good naturedly ribbed at Tristan. Tristan looked up at his squad not being able to help as a smile spread across his face.

"Private Louis, as your commanding officer I respectfully command you to piss off!" Louis merely waved his hands as he and the rest of the Rangers pulled over a chair to the cot.

"So tell me oh fragile one, what was it like to be blasted apart by xeno magic?" Emily asked Tristan her usually reserved side being put aside, jumping on the opportunity get a rise out of her commanding officer.

"As I don't feel like being court martialed for sexual harassment I will not tell you to piss off, and only suggest that you tread lightly around the subject of being attacked by magic", he replied with a huff. Finally Zac decided to speak up the unusually quiet man speaking softly.

"Alright, alright let the man rest he's gone through enough without having his entire squad calling him a Disney princess". Tristan grinned his approval but as usual the aloof man just nodded in response.

"So tell me what exactly happened when I was out? All I really remember is being hit by the hacking magic user", Tristan demanded from the squad.

"Well we succeeded obviously, armor field got blown to hell, one of the generals was kidnapped and no one died!" Louis faltered for a moment and then added with a snicker, "well at least no one who didn't deserve dying". The entire squad laughs save Zac who merely smiles as he yet again stands apart from the squad.

"Oh, that reminds me", began Tristan, "Just how in the Hell did you get caught?!" he roars at the combined pair of Sarkon and Louis. The pair proceeds to tell their side of the story to Tristan, followed up by Zac who calmly (and with much fewer "heroics") told Tristan what happened after he was knocked out.

"Oh and I can't resist this one Lieutenant, but who does it feel to know that you, the awesome one man army of a ranger that you were saved by a Militia captain?!" Louis asked yet again delving into the wonderful aspect of teasing his CO. Tristan was about to respond opening his mouth before the door on the very far right shot open to admit a rather flustered looking nurse.

"Alright alright, let the man bloody rest; lord knows he's going to need it with the way he treats his body" she said as she stalked down the aisle of cots. She was a middle aged woman, with silver hair and a kindly attitude about her, her accent was of European decent but Tristan couldn't quite place it he wanted to say French. "Ok, shoo you lot; visiting time is over time for good old military medical procedure". As she continued to move down the hall the Rangers get up replacing the chairs to their original places and slowly shuffle out of the field hospital. The doctor taped a few times on her holopad before she nodded to her satisfaction and looked up at Tristan.

"Hello Lieutenant, I am Dr. Karin Chakwas, and I'm currently responsible to make sure you don't horribly disfigure your body again", she said in an amused tone.

"An admirable goal I'm sure, but fairly pointless in the grand scheme of things" Tristan replied.

"Too true I'm sure", she said dryly, "But I can at least make sure you don't go demolishing that foot of yours again for a little while. To that effect I'm sure you'd like to know all the dirty details about what happened to your fairly "abused appendage"", Tristan nodded, needing to know if he'd be able to continue fighting or if he'd be on leave the rest of the siege. Seeing his agreement Dr. Chakwas gave him her holopad showing a detailed diagram of what Tristan assumed was his foot.

"The "Magical attack" that hit your foot was from tests run on our "willing Turian test subject" discovered to be some form of dark energy somehow manipulated by these aliens in doing multiple physics defying things such as, limited teleportation, telekinesis, stasis fields, and incredibly unstable dark energy fields that can be used to as a form of combat viciously ripping apart anything it touches", Tristan grimaces remembering the horrible pain as he was hit by the Turian's purple beam of light, "In your case you were in luck as your shields and armor saved you from the worst of the blow, while your foot did suffer extensive muscle, tissue and bone damage the timely application of medigel stabilized its condition and allowed us to regrow and repair the damage that had occurred".

"So you're saying I got incredibly lucky?" Tristan asked, gingerly moving his foot around noting to his pleasure only a slight tingling accompanied the movement. The Dr nodded her yes, replying.

"If you didn't have shields you would probably be dead. But dwelling on what could happen won't help anyone, and will only prevent me from helping others. So I'm sure you're wondering if you'll be able to walk, well I have good news and bad news: the good news is that you'll be fine to put weight on the foot right away, the bad news is General Williams has ordered that you and the rest of the Rangers meet him for a special assignment, my guess is you won't be fighting the rest of the battle", Chakwas informed him pulling a small tube from her white lab coat, "This is heavy duty Medigel, you should be fine but just to be sure apply this to your entire foot every 8 hours for the next 3 weeks". Tristan nodded grabbing the tube. The doctor then made a few more swift taps on the holopad before she informed him he was free to go and that his uniform was at the foot of his bed.

As she walked off Tristan hurriedly dressed in the grey blue uniform before he walked out of the hospital only slightly limping as he moved along. He hoped whatever General Williams had in mind didn't involve a high speed chase.

* * *

"You've been doing this long enough prisoner 24300 do what we want and we won't have to get messy in there", the words blared from a loudspeaker within a small 5 by 5 meter cell surrounded by glass walls containing one very irate Turian.

Cornelius or prisoner 24300 as the xenos called him had been in and out of this cell for the past week and a half since his capture, throughout which they had made him go through a plethora of tests, from doing simple biotic capabilities to having to urinate in a plastic cup provided by the bastards. To say he was annoyed at this point was a SEVERE understatement. Still he supposed he could be in worse places…like he could be dead…or he could be listening to a Hanar priest. To tell the truth Cornelius couldn't think of to many worse things than what he had to do right now.

Sighing he gave up the game and indulged his captors by focusing his biotic abilities and rushing forward at breakneck speeds, cleanly eviscerating the flimsy target in front of him. It was like this just about every day, he was paraded into this cell, forced to do endless tests for what he assumed were scientists and military officers, and then march back to his cell and repeat. So it was of surprise to him when there was a change to the usual routine. A group of 5 more xenos marched through the small lab doors, 4 of them were the Asari creatures while the other was one of the split jaws, the quintet quickly walked up to the most stately dressed xeno in the room, Cornelius assumed it was a high ranking officer. While it was a small difference it was one of the only that ever occurred within this abysmal lab and Cornelius would be damned if he wasn't going to observe every second.

* * *

"General Williams, 24th UNSC Rangers D squad reporting for duty", snapped off Tristan as he saluted the general.

"At ease soldier", the general ordered as he returned the salute, "You're probably wondering why I have called you and your squad here", Tristan nodded he was indeed wondering what was so important that Williams immediately recalled him from the field hospital. "If you and your squad would follow me we shall have this discussion in more private quarters", pausing for a moment Williams for whatever reason called Maras over to join them; she was currently standing guard just outside the glass cell's door. When Tristan sent her a questioning glance she merely shrugged her shoulders, clearly as confused as the Rangers were. The group then maneuvered out of the austere lab and found themselves in an even more Spartan meeting room. Gesturing for the them to take a seat at the central table Williams walked over to the console on the far side of the room and after fiddling with it for several seconds succeeded in bringing up a 3d hologram of Lou Yang, along with the three Turian camps, one of which was abandoned.

"As I'm sure you are aware we are in quite the delicate situation", Tristan snorted; delicate didn't quite describe what was going on, "We are under siege by hostile xeno forces, outnumbered three to one and will not be receiving reinforcements from Arcturus until late tomorrow night. Now one would think with the rate things have been going at this would be of comfort; the Turians have been slow and sluggish in their assault, after the first abysmal attack content to wait for the complete landing of their forces. We managed to buy time with the destruction of the armor field at their main camp but that was only a delaying maneuver and our time is up", as the general continued his briefing concerned glances were exchanged among the group, uneasy about what the General might be alluding to.

"What are you saying General? Are the Turians finally gearing up for an assault?" Zac asked worriedly.

"It is far worse than that I fear; not only are the Turians attacking the movements we have been observing all day indicate they our sending everything they have at us in one massive push. I would have been able to weather maybe about half of what they our sending us, but if what I and the rest of high command think is true we won't survive the night", growls emanated from both Sarkon and Maras at that while the humans merely sat and pondered the disturbing revelation as they themselves watched the proof in the form of holograms of entire legions of Turians distributing themselves around the city. One thing nagged at Tristan's mind more than this though.

"With all due respect sir why are we being told this behind the backs of everyone else? It all seems…covered up", Tristan queried voicing his confusion. General Williams took a long time to reply, knowing that this would probably be more difficult than the up and coming battle.

"I am informing you all now behind closed doors because I need you 6 to leave Lou Yang _before_ the battle commences", silence pervaded the room for all of fifteen seconds before Tristan finally replied.

"Why?"

"Because, those Turian captives we have in the room there are the single most important asset we have in this war, if we are to strike them where it hurts we need information; the general has that. If we want to find a way to combat, or create our own _biotics_ we need that Turian in the lab. To that point you are going to remove them from any danger of falling back into enemy hands", Williams elaboration did make since but Tristan was still angry about the specifics, before he could voice his concerns Emily spoke up asking the exact thing he was about to question.

"But why send us, why the Rangers?" Williams paused for a moment, clearly caught off guard by this question.

"Because you are the most suited for the task, if anyone can make sure those POWs get out of here it will be you lot. As for Captain Maras, well I truly didn't make that call; in the end it was decided by Lord Hood that the best way to combat these biotics is to send the closest thing we have to an expert combating them", again Williams explanation was sound but Maras merely gave a Sangheili frown at Williams, doing little to contain her loathing at the idea of abandoning her home and comrades. Tristan thought it over for a moment and decided he saw no other flaws with the idea and from a strategic standpoint it made perfect sense; the POWs were very important to the soon to be war and the battle would compromise their security astronomically.

"Very well, where are we being sent?" he asked. Williams once again manipulated the hologram, changing the image from the city to a mountain range that Tristan knew was only several dozen kilometers outside the outskirts of Lou Yang.

"When the 4th R&D was destroyed there was a slight, shall we say _mutiny_ all covenant species forcibly removed human personnel and officers before their ships were destroyed, save two frigates that carrying only humans shuttled the escape pods to Shanxi", the Rangers, particularly the humans raised their brows at this though they had the correct inkling of it having something to do with honor. The general continued, "You will be moved to this location via a cloaked phantom transport, at which Captain McHenery of the 4th R&D will provide more details. Any questions?" though in truth Tristan loathed leaving the fight and he knew so did the rest of the group he knew better than trying to argue with the general.

"Only one: when do we leave?"

And so it was that 2 hours later Tristan found himself strapped to the seat of a repurposed Phantom drop ship preparing to leave one of Lou Yang's six vertical runways and hanger bays. He noted to his immense relief that the Turian "biotic" was peacefully dozing asleep three chairs away from him, forget the fact that his arms were bound and that at least 2 guns were pointed at his general direction at all times. He looked around seeing that all the Rangers and Maras had arrived and was strapped in awaiting take off, although he had heard that getting Maras here had eventually taken two bonded Mgalekgolo dragging her down the hallway; at least she had the decency not to kick and scream. He also found to his slight amusement and pleasure that the doctor who had overseen his stay and surgery in the hospital was coming as well, something about being an expert on alien physiology or something like that. In any case Tristan was glad he'd at least have one confirmed sane person on the ride with them.

Finally after what seemed like hours the pilot flying the phantom made sure everyone was strapped in and after a quick check of stealth systems slowly lifted out of the hanger.

A sense of unease filled the city as the transport flew by; the city was a ghost town the only signs of life were the occasional patrol or defensive hard point though it looked like UNSC soldiers were scrambling around to improve and create more of those defensives as quickly as possible. Tristan admitted he felt a strike of shame as the craft zipped by, abandoning thousands of soldiers to the mercy of Turians, Tristan wrestled with the guilt tried to subdue it and destroy it but wasn't too successful overall. He could only imagine what Maras felt like. His hatred of the Turians increased tenfold at that point.

* * *

The fading light of the systems star painted the city of Lou Yang in an ethereal glow, the city skyline standing defiant even as it stood slightly diminished before the Turian onslaught. For many, many moments nothing happened, the two armies and commanders holding bated breath as it seemed the entire galaxy was watching this moment on this forlorn plain. Then it began.

The Turian well-disciplined hordes were unleashed, great dust clouds and a cacophony of sound generated by their unstoppable march forward. This time there would be no mistakes, the sky was littered by literally thousands of Turian craft, fighters streaking forward and looping around waiting, while gunships and transports casually glided by the soldiers marching below. The infantry was again in perfect pristine rows and columns as they fanned out moving in practiced grace around the city outskirts cautiously examining any potential hiding spot for a trap. What remained of the armor (which was still a fearsome amount) moved along at a respectable pace alongside the infantry forming a massive wall completely boxing the city of Lou Yang in. The new commander was no fool, he knew better than to simply charge in his troops to their demise so he merely waited and waited, letting fear gnaw at the hearts of the defenders for many seconds. He then gave a simple message, eerily identical to one given in a completely different part of the galaxy only weeks before. Like that previous command it would cause shockwaves across the galaxy and the effects of its utterance would be known for centuries.

"Begin".

The clouds were suddenly torn asunder as great streaking lines of blue light flew from the atmosphere slamming into the city. These were no underpowered strikes designated for precision and softening up targets, this was a pure and indiscriminate bombing campaign. The Turians lived up well to their reputation of not recognizing civilians in a war; the bombardment was powerful and complete, the titanic skyscrapers and apartments of Lou Yang shuddering and giving way under massive displays of strength and ruthlessness. The thump and shriek of the rounds slamming into the ground reportedly could be heard and felt all the way to small towns and villages many many kilometers from the city. To the Turians it meant that their invasion would be all the easier, to the species of the NSA it meant only one thing: total war.

Almost as quickly as the bombardment began it stopped, the blue streaks no longer fell from the sky and the city was no longer horribly abused. When the smoke cleared however what the Turians saw was not what they had expected in the slightest. True the bombardment had devastated the city with hundreds of buildings destroyed; true the enemy was in chaos running around like a pyjack with its head cut off, but what they did not expect to see was willpower. The Turians foolishly thought that with this great show of force, this one act of aggression that the defenders backs would be broken and there will to fight destroyed; it was the complete opposite. As the officers of the Turian army looked on through binoculars and 3d holograms they saw the smoke clear, many a dead alien and then the outpouring of thousands upon thousands of soldiers running up from unseen hiding spots taking old and new positions among the rubble, standing defiant in the face of death. It was for too much defiance for one crazed young field marshal to take. he ordered the attack, with no further orbital bombardment.

The Turian officers were adamant exclaiming the horror of attacking without further weakening the defended positions of the aliens, one by one these Turians learned the "punishment of failure" and soon no Turian would dare to defy the will of Romulus. The war machine of the Turians moved forward the surviving officers moving cautiously this time actively scanning for the mines that were indeed ringing the approach to the urban suburbs. They found them; at least they found the ancient widely spread out mines that were merely placed to distract the Turians from the real threat. These mines were triggered one by one by electronic drones that merely ran up and quickly deactivated putting their weight on the mines triggering them. In no time at the _entire_ minefield was neutralized. Still the Turians remained careful as they inched slowly forward, moving first the most damaged and ineffectual armor then the rest of the army when no mines had been triggered. Little did the Turians know that, yet again these mines were not triggered by such an imprecise thing such as weight. Half the Turian army was over these mines before they were remotely detonated.

For years the Turians would call it the single greatest act of cowardice they had even seen in a battle. Entire regiments of armor and soldiers were consumed by the great blasts of, kinetic energy, fire, and plasma. If one was to look from an aerial view it would have appeared that a small silver sea had been rent asunder by great billowing black holes. Thousands of Turians had died in the massive explosions but there were tens of thousands to spare and now the commanders wanted vengeance.

Almost instantly the advance began anew, the aerial units finally streaking ahead to deal what damage they could ahead of the main army; they were stopped by a wall of fire. The dozens of AA batteries that survived the orbital bombing opened up with flak, missiles and laser beams lighting up the evening sky as hundreds of Turians ships began to be destroyed. Some being vaporized so completely there was barely any affect on the ground as the impacted it. Despite this awesome display the sheer number of the Turian craft allowed dozens to sneak behind the first line of defenses causing a short amount of havoc, or disgorging a dozen or so soldiers before being summarily destroyed by the secondary defenses. However their goal had been accomplished and now the cabals, the most effective fighting force the Turians had to combat the defenders were behind enemy lines.

The cabals were biotics, and while they matched neither the power nor numbers of the Asari they still were frightening to behold and nearly a thousand of them, in small squads of 6 or less roamed the streets striking fear into the hearts of the defenders as they threw themselves against enemy hard points. The defenders were valiant and their tech utterly outmatched the cabals but the powers of the Turians were too great and one by one defensive positions were lost, captured, or destroyed by the biotics before they moved on to another attack. Throughout 3 hours the cabals roamed unopposed the small groups working to their favor as they were able to strike and fall back unable to be effectively attacked by the defenders who were desperately pressed at the frontlines.

While the cabals were causing their havoc the Turian main force surrounded the city and commenced their assault moving forward in massive waved trying to overwhelm the thinly spread defenders. To the Turians continued anger they were unable to mount an effective attack, their air forces now tied up in a massive engagement with dozens of Longswords and Banshees that emerged from Lou Yang's hidden runways. Their armor was effectively zero as the combined losses from the bombing from the rangers to the mines during the first and current assault reduced their numbers to terrifying lows. Technically the only untouched ranged forces were the artillery and while during the first hour of the engagement these units fired unopposed on the defenders a blitz from invisible bombers destroyed almost all artillery pieces, the UNSC bombers were brought down by AA units but the victory went to the UNSC.

So it was an unmitigated slaughter as laughably light APCs and tanks (by UNSC standards) went up against units with weapons specifically designed for anti-armor. As the armor was destroyed the Turians were left by no choice but to send wave after wave of infantry into the suburbs only to fall into rapidly growing mounds of Turian corpses as they were destroyed by the front lines untouched by the Cabals. The tactic was repulsive to the Turian commanders but with all other assets occupied they had to keep up the pressure on the front lines lest the cabals be cornered and destroyed.

Finally in the 3rd hour the cabals made a mistake. Rapidly draining their manpower in the desperate charges the Turian commanders made a controversial command, at the loss of thousands of Turians they would amass for one massive push upon a small stretch about a kilometer long containing streets that lead directly to the heart of the city. As the assault commenced almost all UNSC forces moved to that area as they repulsed the Turian attack, although it was later admitted what came next was the only reason the line held. The cabals finally grouped together, striking at one of the now sorely undefended flanks of the city, the Turian infantry reserve moved in from the front creating a dangerous pincer movement catching the unprepared defenders in between. The fighting was brutal and swift, caught off guard by the brutal attack the militia troops were systematically destroyed. But this sacrifice allowed the destruction of the cabals.

The greatest advantages of the cabals were their small size allowing them to prevent total destruction by the defenders that roamed the cities, desperate as they tried to find and destroy the biotics. The grouping together of the surviving biotics allowed them to be targeted for effect. So as the flank finally was penetrated by the Turian pincer the remaining Longswords and phantoms fighting the Turian craft peeled off and bombed the cabals to cinders, while several dozen escaped hundreds more died and the biotic threat of the Turians was essentially destroyed. Though as it was with the initial push with the aircraft in the first stages of the battle the sacrifice allowed a strategic victory for the rest of the Turian army; the first and strongest line of defense was penetrated allowing the Turian reserve to make a beeline straight for the center of the city, and the only unhidden entrances to the bunkers.

In a sacrifice that would be remembered for years an entire regiment of militia, 3000 soldiers, held the line where the Turians had launched their feint. The militia was slaughtered to the man but their deaths bought time for the remaining UNSC forces to move to the second line within the city proper. Finally the attack halted, the Turians pulled back licking their wounds and consolidating their new holdings as they took stock of their losses. It was one of the many mistakes the Turians made out of ignorance that allowed Lou Yang to hold for so long and so effectively. All Turian commanders made one of two assumptions, one: this was the home world of the alien forces and they had no other colonies with forces to counter attack, or the much more popular one: this was not the home world of the aliens but FTL would at least take several weeks from the nearest system and the Turians would have plenty of time to ravage the planet.

So while the Turians moved the rest of the reserve forces up the UNSC defenders used the time to repair and reinforce critically needed points along the route. After 3 hours the fight began anew. This time however there was no grand strategy, no squads of biotics or fields of mines it was urban warfare at its purest and rawest form; it was sheer hell. This night and morning would forever be frozen into Turian brains as the night of blood, for 3 hours they pushed with everything they had left deeper into the city, the shattered remnants held the line valiantly performing hundreds of small hit and run attacks and ambushes; anything they could do to avoid a direct engagement. From car bombs, to destroying entire buildings the UNSC forces goaded and baited the Turians in every wrong direction buying another few hours before the Turians started thinking with their brains again. The commanders at that point recognized their greatest strength and liability; the Turian numbers.

The infantry of the Turians still numbered in the tens of thousands and while this allowed them to overwhelm the UNSC forces it also worked the other way as the hundreds of different squads and companies could not be controlled properly by the horrendously ravaged Turian high command. And throughout the night the UNSC had recognized this with almost every soldier above sergeant that entered the fray was always the first target for the soldiers; the mantra of cutting off the head was taken to its logical conclusion. This dismantling of the Turian officers caused unforeseen chaos in the Turian army, with reports filtering into high command of entire platoons breaking ranks completely and charging like a wild varren towards the nearest sign of UNSC presence; usually to their deaths. So it was in the wee hours of the morning that the Turians finally made their last play. They charged.

It was comparable to the blitzkrieg of the early battle of the 2nd world war, with all remaining Turian armor creating a spear head followed by every single infantry platoon in the invasion force. The tactics of hit and run were but an annoyance to this beast; they could be diverted to another street but not stopped. UNSC Scorpions and Wraiths made valiant attempts of breaking through the Turian horde, but they were overwhelmed by numbers. Within 2 hours the Turian army made more ground than they did throughout the entire rest of the battle. Finally with the entrance to the bunkers only half a kilometer away from the Turians the UNSC played their last and greatest card. A scarab was deployed.

Cosmetically the titanic beast of armor and fire power had changed little since the days of the Great War, though much more important changes had been made. Replacing the original plasma beam mounted on its head was a severely underpowered MAC termed Mini MAC capable of firing a round every 10 seconds. The rounds themselves were 500 kilos of Tungsten slugs coated in plasma that ignites upon firing doing horrendous amounts of damage to shields before the slug itself impacted. The point defense weapons remained pretty much the same with dual mounted plasma turrets situated on either side, now supplemented by severely underpowered DEW capable of firing every 3 seconds. The entire affair was covered head to toe in forerunner plating making the behemoth virtually indestructible. The Turians probably tried to forget that the entire thing was protected by a Forerunner shield.

Moving into the right flank of the Turian onslaught the Scarab immediately lived up to its reputation of fear and nigh indestructibility as it shattered the Turian assault and sent entire platoons to an early grave with but a step from its massive legs. The Turians tried everything from sacrificing their armor to sending fighters filled with explosives to try and kamikaze and explode on top of the Scarab, all of these plans failed. The Scarab roamed unheeded killing hundreds of Turians and taking back all the ground the UNSC had lost in the attack, finally after 3 hours the Turians made a move.

Deploying the two dozen cabals that they had left via dozens of swarming gunships the biotics deployed _within_ the Scarab to neutralize the walker. The crew fought valiantly with the Lekgolo worms that were inside the titan even trying to prevent the biotics, but it was to no avail as the Biotics systematically destroyed the crew. Originally the cabals orders were to capture the Scarab for study but as it was piloted and controlled by the worms the Turians had no idea and no way to move the walker. It was this indecision that caused the deaths of the last Turian walkers. The Worms catching wind of what the Turians mission was shut down, self-destructing the Scarab. In a flash of blue fire that fried all sensitive techs the Scarab and the Turians inside it were consumed by plasma. For thirty seconds the Turian army merely sat back and watched. Then like the tides of the Sea they swarmed forward.

* * *

300 massive vessels rushed by in the cold soulless light of Slipspace. Lord Terrence Hood paced back and forth amongst the largest vessel in the vast room of beeping terminals flashing holograms and a massive viewing platform that composed the bridge of his ship. While the Infinity Class capital ship was no longer the most imposing or the most powerful of humanity's arsenal it still remained a frightening class of ship and the most numerous of humanity's capital class with over 500 Infinity class warship deployed throughout NSA space. The Infinity class was as most things in the human arsenal a byproduct of the Great War; created to be able to stand toe to toe with Covenant capital ships it was reportedly given, "Every scrap of Forerunner technology that the UNSC picked up during the war", a century ago it was able to stand against 3 covenant battlecruisers and walk away with scratches, it could stand up against 2 CAS Class Assault Carriers and limp away. Even pitted against the might of CSO Super Carrier it was predicted that both ships would suffer mortal wounds. Now a century later a single Infinity class would probably be able to take ancient Super Carriers and walk away with only slight damage.

Its arsenal included 3 standard MAC guns as well as the newest designation of MAC: the Ultra MAC. The Ultra was the mid ground between super and standard MAC, capable of gutting capital ships, but being limited by a large recharge time, over a minute in fact. Despite this the Ultra MAC was one of the most powerful and versatile weapons in the UNSC's arsenal which had been proven time and time again against the Covenant remnant. Next the Infinity was equipped with over 1000 missile pods of different classes from Archer to Rapier bringing the total missile count to a whopping 25,000. Finally the Infinity class was equipped with 3 energy projectors mounted on the brow and the belly of the ship along with hundreds of other plasma weaponry. To say that her ship class was overpowered would be a gross miscalculation of the highest degree; the infinity was power.

However Lord Hood was not comforted by this fact; for the 2 weeks of travel from Arcturus to Shanxi the 3rd wing of Arcturus had constant communications with Lou Yang and Shanxi. They had heard the reports of the initial attack and destruction of CDF and R&D fleets. Hood currently couldn't believe his luck at being able to fight two zealous xenophobic alien races. Though to tell the truth he was confused; in all the reports that Director Harper had sent him not one detailed the Turian government, or any government in the citadel being religious fanatics at least not to the point of violence. Hood supposed it didn't matter now; the UNSC had the perfect line to pitch to the United Species Government for war. He was brought from his dark musing by a navigator at the far side of the room.

"Grand Admiral, we're coming out of slipspace in five minutes!"

Hood nodded it was all coming to fruition. Bringing up a com channel with the other Commanding officers he sat back down in his CO chair.

"Officers the moment we come out of slipspace we will be right on top of Shanxi, we will immediately find the Turian fleet and subdue them. I want plenty of captured targets to that affect there better be plenty of EMP Nukes out there. Beyond that everyone keep a calm head and keep to standard tactics; we don't need any heroes today", Hood cut the connection and prepared himself for the first battle he'd taken part of in years.

* * *

Romulus was giddy; the battle on the planet below was finally going his way. The magnificent walker that the aliens had deployed regrettably was destroyed but that didn't matter they had been pushed back all the way to the city's main plaza and were in the process were being overwhelmed by the grand army of the Turians. After all this time he was being rewarded for his patience and his magnificent genius was being rewarded, HE had beaten these barbarians and he would be remembered in Turian history as the one who subdued this powerful soon to be client species of the Turians. However he could not revel in his ultimate victory for as long as he would like before an annoying beeping noise sounded across the bridge of his Troop Carrier.

"What is that racket?" Romulus snapped at the nearest sensor officer.

"I'm picking up some strange readings, a radiation surge…it's larger than anything I've ever seen; beyond dangerous levels", he replied.

"So they're desperate enough to use more nukes eh?" Romulus chuckled to himself; they could be his guest if they wanted to blow themselves up. He didn't even consider the Turian army that would go with them.

"My Lord you misunderstand me, it's not coming from the planet! It is originating at the left side of the fleet!" Romulus frowned looking out the port side viewing window, only to see space get ripped apart as a blue black portal hundreds of kilometers wide appeared out of nowhere. Instantly Romulus recognized the portal from the original space battle above the planet, but before he could issue orders ships shot out of the shifting depths of the portal. Immediately Romulus was blinded by massive flashes of light that consumed several dozen ships on the extreme left of the fleet. Slowly he regained sight and viewed out the window, only to see hundreds of alien ships firing upon the shocked remnants of the fleet.

"Report", Romulus snarled.

"Sir another massive radiation surge, 34 ships have been destroyed, another 27 have been compromised!" one officer reported.

"Enemy scan complete, I count 300 vessels, 125 are dreadnaught class and beyond!" another said.

"Enemy opening salvo, 56 more ships have been destroyed, fighter craft being deployed by enemy vessels we're being overwhelmed on all fronts!" yet another shouted, further adding to the chaos of the bridge. It was all falling to pieces but Romulus wouldn't not allow the aliens to have so easy of a battle he would be victorious one way or another.

"Sir enemy drop ships entering the planet's atmosphere; our troops will be surrounded!" Let them thought Romulus it would only put more aliens on the funeral pyre.

The battle quickly devolved as Turian ships were surrounded or picked from afar by the UNSC ships. It was not a battle it was a complete rout as the Turians fled with all haste from the UNSC onslaught already losing over half the remnants of the armada. Saren knew he only had one choice: flee and to flee quickly.

"Abandon the battle, fall back to the relay", he ordered, the Turians on the bridge froze and looked at him shocked that he would order such a thing.

"My lord Commodore?" Sidonis hesitantly asked.

"The disabled ships are lost and the battle on the planet is over, we will not become prisoners for the enemy. Sound. The. Retreat", Saren demanded each word being punctuated by more Turian vessels being consumed in flames. Sidonis nodded and sent the order the few remaining Turian vessels rocketing off at FTL speeds.

"Sir, Marshal Romulus' carrier group is not following us", Sidonis reported. Saren scowled; wondering what the fool could be doing.

"Put him on screen", quickly the orders were carried out and Romulus' deranged face filled Saren's console.

"What are you doing Romulus?! The battle is lost retreat before you too are destroyed", Saren commanded.

"Oh no Saren the battle is not only it has just begun, when you tell the Republic my story tell them of my sheer brilliance and sacrifice to see the day remain ours!" Romulus replied a dangerous look in his eyes. "We will win even if we must stand on a pile of ashes!" Saren understood then what the unhinged Turian meant.

"By the spirits you're crazy! I don't condemn WMDs but only when they're necessary for victory this is unmitigated slaughter!" Saren roared, demanding Romulus stop his crazy notion.

"Many Turians thought that I was crazy", Romulus began with a happy tone, "They're all dead now, goodbye commodore may the spirits guide your glorious victory", suddenly the feed cut dead and in its place was a camera from the underbelly of Romulus' carrier. Saren saw as a hanger bay door opened open to reveal the bomb, he watched its slow descent into atmosphere and he saw even from this great distance above the planet the light and smoke of its detonation. The vid ended abruptly soon afterward as all the alien ships sent their vengeful might against Romulus' single carrier; it was unholy overkill.

"My lord, orders?" Sidonis asked in a shaky voice.

"Get the fleet out of here", Saren replied numb, he knew at that point this war could not be stopped, and that it would last until either the Turians or these aliens were destroyed. Saren for the first time in many years was terrified.

**A/N and my friend here we are to the dramatic conclusion to the battle of Lou Yang. It took a long time getting here but I'm pretty happy with the result. As usual I want your feedback however, particularly tell me what you thought of the narrative viewpoint of the battle. I felt it was the only way I could really tell the entire battle in a reasonable amount of time. In any case the proverbial sword has been drawn from the sheath of the UNSC and you better believe no amount of Asari smooth talking will get the Citadel out of this one. Until that time I leave you once again, on another note as the season of School is rapidly approaching us updates will become fewer and further between, I'll do the best I can but it will probably be only an update a month. As always i hope you enjoy the story and remember to review to tell me how to improve it. Until then –JoetheHighlord out. **


End file.
